Egypt: Death On The Nile

EGYPT

Death on the Nile

Authorities on Monday blamed a terror group with links to the Muslim Brotherhood for a car bomb in Cairo that killed at least 20.

The blast Sunday night hit Corniche boulevard along the Nile River, setting other cars ablaze and injuring at least 47 more people, the Associated Press reported. The explosion also shattered parts of the façade of Egypt’s main cancer hospital and damaged some rooms inside, forcing the evacuation of dozens of patients, the agency said.

Having at first attributed the incident to a multi-vehicle accident, the Interior Ministry accused a militant group called Hasm, which has links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, of responsibility once it acknowledged the blast as a terrorist attack.

Though smaller bombings have taken place fairly often in the intervening period, the explosion was the deadliest such attack to hit Cairo since the December 2016 bombing of a chapel near Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral, which killed 30 people during Sunday Mass.

That incident was claimed by an Egyptian affiliate of Islamic State.