Three Killed in Bus Attack by Gunmen in Sinai

CAIRO,(ST)_ Three people died and 15 were injured when a bus was shelled in North Sinai in the early hours of Monday.

The bus was carrying workers from a cement factory in Central Sinai when a group of armed assailants fired an RPG. Eyewitnesses reported the militants had originally targeted either Arish Airport or an armoured vehicle stationed near the airport.

Al-Arish residents rushed to Arish General Hospital to donate blood as several cases were severely injured and the death toll is expected to rise, according to Nasser Al-Azzazy, the Daily News Egypt correspondent in Sinai.

The armed forces expressed “deep condolences” to victims’ families in a statement released by the army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Ali.

Militants had planted a landmine on the international road between Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, which exploded on Sunday metres away from an armoured vehicle. While the vehicle was unharmed, an army source stated that one of the militants died in the explosion.

At dawn on Monday unknown gunmen fired a rocket at a security building under construction, reported state news agency MENA.

“A 17 year old guard died in the attack while a 12 year old boy was injured,” said Ahmed Abo Deraa, a Sinai reporter.

The area near Karm Abu Salem border crossing witnessed an exchange of fire between armed men and military personnel that lasted for more than half an hour.

The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) expressed concern regarding violence in Sinai, stating that attacks on military installations are a threat to Egyptian national security.

EOHR blamed the Brotherhood for the attacks, basing their claim upon statements by Brotherhood leaders that attacks in Sinai will stop when Morsi is reinstated as president.

“EOHR demands the immediate arrest of those who incite violence in Sinai…and presenting them to justice,” the statement read.

EOHR Chairman Hafez Abo Seada said that the army and the government should deal strictly with anyone who threatens unarmed citizens and national security in Sinai.

So far, the Brotherhood has staunchly rejected participating in the new political process, saying it will not validate what it calls the illegal ouster of Morsi. The group has questioned the new leadership’s calls for dialogue even as authorities launch a crackdown against the Brotherhood’s leadership, putting Morsi and five others in detention and issuing arrest warrants against others. Morsi has been kept at an undisclosed location, but no formal charges have been filed, AP reported .

In a main Cairo intersection, thousands have been holding a sit-in to protest Morsi’s ouster by the military following days of mass protests by millions opposed to his handling of the country during his year in office.

The interim leadership says it wants to offer the Brotherhood’s political party posts in the Cabinet it is putting together, but the group has refused.

According to AP the Brotherhood posted a statement in the form of a letter addressing the head of Egypt’s military on Monday, suggesting he had committed treason for leading a coup against the president. The letter was made public after el-Sissi sought to justify his decision to remove Morsi, saying the deposed president had violated his popular mandate and antagonized state institutions while in office.

The activist group Tamarod explained on its Facebook page sarcastically that it turned down an invitation to meet  with US Under Secretary of state during his recent visit to Cairo because of perceived U.S. support for the Brotherhood over the past year.

“What is your business with Egypt? Stick with the Brotherhood and show me what good they are (to you),” one of Tamarod’s founders, Mahmoud Badr, said in a posting.

Emara, of the Brotherhood, said any talks with U.S. officials would have to recognize the group’s demand for Morsi’s reinstatement — not about a post-Morsi political process.

In a sign of how anti-U.S. tone has sharpened, the editor in chief of the main state newspaper Al-Ahram called the United States “the Great Satan” and denounced American “meddling” in Egypt. The paper has hewed closely to the military since Morsi’s ouster.

“I will not feel liberated so long as the American flag flaps in Egypt skies, and as long as US meddling in Egypt’s most intimate affairs continues,” Abdel-Nasser Salama wrote in the editorial Friday.

At a rally of Morsi supporters in Cairo, the deputy leader of the Brotherhood’s political party, Essam el-Erian told the crowd that Obama pressured Morsi to offer concessions to the protesters or a military coup will be inevitable.

T. Fateh