January 24, 2014

Bombings mainly targeting security forces rocked Cairo, the capital of Egypt, this morning, leaving at least 6 people dead and some 100 people injured. The attacks came on the third anniversary of the start of the uprising that drove long-time President Hosni Mubarak from office in 2011. The militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Champions of Jerusalem), which is reportedly inspired by the al-Qa’ida terrorist network, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Egyptian government blamed the violence on the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group that had backed the election of Mohamed Morsi, a long-time member of the group, in 2012. In 2013, the Egyptian military removed Morsi, the first freely elected president of that country, from office amid widespread public protests against his government. Since then, the Brotherhood has clashed repeatedly with Egypt’s new military-backed government. But the Brotherhood strongly denied any involvement in the bombings and condemned them as “cowardly acts.”

The first bomb struck police headquarters in Cairo, killing four people and injuring 76 others. Egypt’s  minister of the interior said the attack seemed to be the work of a suicide bomber. A second attack targeted police vehicles near a transit station in the Dokki district of the city. One person reportedly died in that bombing. No none was hurt in a third attack, which went off outside a police station near the Giza pyramids. The fourth bomb, which exploded outside a movie theater in the Giza district, killed one person.

Egypt's political turmoil began in 2011, when protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square against the government led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Since then, Egypt has lurched from one political crisis to the next. (© John Moore, Getty Images)

Additional World Book articles:

• Tahrir Square
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Egypt (2011) (a Back in Time article)
• Egypt (2012) (a Back in Time article)