An Egyptian government security building in Cairo was targeted in a auto bombing early Thursday where at least 29 people were injured in an attack claimed by the Islamic State.
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Egypt’s interior ministry said that a auto exploded outside the security compound.
National Security, the country’s feared secret police, has played a key role in a crackdown that has seen thousands of Brotherhood activists rounded up.
The bombing wounded 29 people, including six policemen, said health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar.
Most of the anti-government attacks were claimed by the “Sinai State” militant group, a Sinai-based affiliate of the Islamic State regional militant group.
ISIS announced its involvement in the explosion in a public broadcast over the Al-Bayan radio station where it claimed that the “soldiers of the caliphate” had carried out the attack.
The blast, which occurred at 2:30 A.M., came from a auto loaded with explosives six miles north of the downtown area of the Egyptian capital.
Front glass windows of three buildings near the site were also shattered.
The blast left a crater in the street and partially destroyed the building.
In claiming responsibility for the attack via Twitter, ISIS said it was retribution for the execution of six defendants in the Arab Sharkas case in May 2015, adds CNN.
The passing of the law was expedited after state prosecutor Hisham Barakat was assassinated in a vehicle bombing in June, followed by a large-scale jihadist attack in the Sinai Peninsula days later. The Sinai region has been in the grip of a full-blown insurgency since democratically elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military two years ago, but violence has also spread to Cairo. The death sentences were carried out in May.
Human Rights Watch condemned the new legislation on Wednesday saying it “erodes basic rights”.
Al-Sissi Sunday ratified the controversial anti-terrorism law which sanctions publication of “false information” and establishes a special court to address terrorism.
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The foreign ministry has hit back at criticism, however, insisting that other countries should “respect the independence of the [Egyptian] judiciary”.
