[June 25, 2014]CAIRO (Reuters) - Four small bomb
blasts wounded at least five people in Cairo during the morning rush
hour on Wednesday, security sources said, the first such casualties in
the capital since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi became president this month.
Egypt has seen a wave of violence, mainly attacks by Islamist
militants based in the Sinai peninsula on security forces, since the
army ousted President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in
July following mass protests against him.
Sinai-based militant groups have previously claimed bomb attacks in
Cairo. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for
Wednesday's attacks.
Explosions hit Ghamra metro station in central Cairo, Shubra
El-Kheyma, a northern district of Greater Cairo, and a station in
Quba in northern Cairo, security sources said. Three people were
wounded at Shubra and one person at Ghamra, but their injuries were
not life-threatening, the sources said.
One person was wounded when a bomb attached to a car exploded near a
Cairo court house and another explosive device was found at a fourth
metro station in northern Cairo, the sources said.
Egypt's judiciary has handed out mass death sentences to Islamists
in recent months and on Monday jailed journalists from Al Jazeera
television, accusing them of aiding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood,
drawing international condemnation.
A spokesman for the Metro company said three devices exploded and a
fourth was found at metro stations in Greater Cairo, adding only two
people were injured lightly at Shubra.
The spokesman said the metro system was operating normally.
The Interior Ministry said one person was wounded when a person
carried a home-made bomb to Shubra station. The ministry in a
statement on Facebook added the Ghamra incident was caused by an
explosion in a rubbish bin, but that no one was injured.
Former army chief Sisi, who deposed Mursi, was sworn in as president
after winning election last month. His supporters see him as a
strongman who can save Egypt from chaos after more than three years
of political and economic turmoil following a 2011 revolt that swept
veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power.
(Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; Additional reporting by Stephen
Kalin; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Egypt has seen a wave of violence, mainly attacks by Islamist
militants based in the Sinai peninsula on security forces, since the
army ousted President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in
July following mass protests against him.
