Islamic State militants took credit for a bomb explosion early Thursday morning near a state security facility in the northern part of Cairo, Egypt.
The bomb attack dealt non-lifethreatening wounds to 29 individuals, six of whom are police officers, according to state media sources and the Interior Ministry. The Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL and ISIS) claimed responsibility for the blast in a statement circulated by the SITE Intelligence Group, though it did not explicitly credit its affiliate in Egypt, the Sinai Province.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Islamic State said in its statement Thursday that the bombing in Shubra Al Kheima was retaliation for Egypt’s execution of six men convicted of involvement in the deaths of six police officers in March 2014.
The men were suspected members of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the militant organization that has since pledged allegiance to Islamic State and renamed itself Sinai Province. In May, Sinai Province official Abu Usama al-Masri threatened to avenge their deaths.
The blast, which occurred at 2:30 A.M., came from a car loaded with explosives six miles north of the downtown area of the Egyptian capital. It created a large hole in the street and damaged the windows and outside walls of the security building as well as other surrounding apartment buildings.
According to the Interior Ministry, the driver of the car abandoned it in front of the security building, leaving the scene aboard a motorcycle that had been following the car.
The Sinai Province has previously organized attacks on Egyptian security forces. The group also claimed responsibility for a car bombing on the Italian consulate in central Cairo last month that killed one and wounded 10, representing the first evidence of the IS affiliates in Egypt going after Western targets.
The Cairo bombing occurred two days after Islamic State militants in Syria beheaded an 82-year-old antiquities scholar in the city of Palmyra and hung his corpse on a column in the main square of the city.