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Egypt says attack in Sinai was suicide bomber

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AP Cairo
Egypt's Interior Minister says today's attack on a security headquarters in the southern Sinai Peninsula was the work of a suicide bomber.

Mohammed Ibrahim told The Associated Press that another attack on the country's main satellite telecommunications centre in the capital appeared to be in retaliation for the killing of more than 50 supporters of the former president in clashes with security forces a day earlier.

One satellite in the centre was slightly damaged by a projectile fired from a distance. Communication was not impacted.

The suicide bombing in Sinai's el-Tor town, close to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killed three policemen.
 

Ibrahim also said Islamist militants aim to "distract" and cause instability. He said: "We are at war with them, and they are in their last gasp."

A panel of Egyptian judges has recommended the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood's political party, a move that signals a widening crackdown on the group.

The judges' recommendation today said the party represents an outlawed group. The recommendations will be delivered to a Cairo court reviewing a case demanding the party's dissolution on Oct 19.

The Brotherhood's party was registered in 2011, months after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak the first time the 85-year old organisation formed a political party. It went on to win a majority in the first post-Mubarak parliament, and its leader, Mohammed Morsi, later won office as Egypt's first democratically elected leader.

Morsi was ousted in a popularly backed military coup in July. Authorities have since arrested Brotherhood leaders and cracked down on its protests.

A drive-by shooting killed six Egyptian soldiers east of Cairo today, shortly after a massive car bombing hit the security headquarters in a town near the tourist resorts of southern Sinai, killing three policemen and wounding dozens.

Also today, at least two rocket propelled grenades slammed into a compound housing the country's main satellite earth station in a southern Cairo suburb, security officials said.

The attacks came a day after dozens were killed when holiday celebrations marking the start of the 1973 Mideast war turned into deadly clashes across Egypt, though it was not immediately clear if today's violence was related.

A radical Muslim Salafi group had threatened in a statement last Friday that it would kill anyone who collaborated with the military's ongoing offensive against militants in northern Sinai, but neither the group nor any other radical factions claimed responsibility for any of the attacks today.

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First Published: Oct 08 2013 | 1:40 AM IST

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