Ajnad Misr militant group releases its first video

Ahram Online, Thursday 17 Apr 2014

Video allegedly claims responsibility for eight attacks in Egypt, including this month's bombings at Cairo University

A militant group has issued its first video allegedly claiming responsibility for eight attacks in the country, the latest of which was a series of bombings outside Cairo University earlier this month that killed a senior police officer and wounded five other policemen.

The 23-minute video was published on the Facebook page of a group calling itself Ajnad Misr, or Soldiers of Egypt, and was accompanied by the group's logo.

Ahram Online could not verify the authenticity of the posts.

The video included footage of Egyptian security forces assaulting protesters during demonstrations and inside police stations, with some of the footage dating back to 2010 during the rule of ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks, which the group said date back to November of last year, are part of a campaign dubbed Retribution is Life, the group said.

The group had already claimed responsibility for the bombings outside Cairo University soon after the attack. In a statement released at the time, the group said it was targeting police "criminals" guilty of "massacres" – an apparent reference to the government's crackdown on Islamists following the overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi last summer.

Another militant group, the Al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, has claimed responsibility for bigger attacks across the country – the bombing of Cairo's central police headquarters in January and a blast on a security directorate in the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahliya in December. The group has also claimed a failed assassination attempt on the interior minister in September of last year.

The attacks mostly targeting security personnel and installations have been on the rise since Morsi's ouster. In response, the army has launched an offensive against suspected Islamist militants based in the restive Sinai Peninsula, with scores killed and hundreds arrested in the campaign.

 

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