Attacks in Egypt kill 9; court rules on Brotherhood

Sarah Lynch | USA TODAY

CAIRO — Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was dealt another blow as a panel of judges on Monday recommended that the group's party be dissolved. Meanwhile, violence continued to grip the country, leaving nine dead.

The recommendation, which will be delivered to a Cairo court, said the party is an outlawed group, according to Al-Ahram newspaper. The Brotherhood formed its political wing after the uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the group swept presidential and parliamentary elections.

Two weeks ago, an Egyptian court banned the Brotherhood and its activities and ordered its assets seized.

The judges' recommendation came amid a string of violence that hit three locations across the country a day after more than 50 people died in clashes between Egyptian security forces and supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi.

A massive explosion struck a security headquarters in a southern Sinai town near popular tourist resorts, killing three policemen and wounding dozens of others Monday morning, security officials told the Associated Press.

The attack – possibly a car bomb – was unusual for the south Sinai Peninsula, which has remained relatively undisturbed despite frequent assaults by militants on security outposts in the northern region.

Gunmen killed six Egyptian soldiers Monday while they were sitting in a car at a checkpoint near the Suez Canal, security officials said.

In a third assault, two rocket-propelled grenades hit a state-owned satellite station in southern Cairo. The dawn attack on the station in the leafy suburb of Maadi in Cairo caused only minor damage to one of the giant satellite dishes in the complex. But its significance was far wider, in part because it struck at the heart of the nation's telecommunications center, making it the most serious attack in the capital since last month's assassination attempt against the country's interior minister outside his home in eastern Cairo.

The violence underscores mounting security problems plaguing Egypt since the uprising against Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades. For months, militants have waged a low-level insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, where residents say they have seen an increase in the flow of arms across porous borders from post-revolution Libya.

In early September, Egypt's minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim, who oversees the police, survived an assassination attempt in Cairo when a car bomb struck his convoy, injuring more than 20 people.

Analysts had anticipated assaults on authorities would increase in frequency as Islamists face increasing repression in the aftermath of a July 3 coup that ousted Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president.

"Definitely the violence will continue because it is stirred up by so many different elements, not one entity," said Ziad Akl, a senior researcher at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. "We really don't know who we're fighting."

On Sunday, protesters aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood against the nation's leadership clashed with security forces. Demonstrators had tried to march toward Tahrir Square – the heart of unrest since Mubarak's ouster.

Inside the square, thousands of their political opponents had already gathered to honor the military and celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1973 Egyptian military attack on Israel.

"People are repressed and crushed for no reason," said Walid Alam, an Egyptian tour guide, who marched Sunday with a crowd toward the square when he was pushed back by sounds of gunfire and clouds of tear gas. "There is a lot of brutality against the people."

Muslim Brotherhood-led demonstrations against Egypt's new leaders have persisted over the past three months despite a broadened government crackdown on the group. Khaled Matei, a spokesman for the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said protests across Cairo are planned for Tuesday and Friday.

"We want to tell all the people around the world that we don't agree with this government," he said, noting that he expects more clashes.