Explosion on Bridge in Cairo, Egypt

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Please pray for victims of the blast in Cairo and for all civilians there who end being targets of terrorist attacks.

 

Explosion Hits Bridge in Central Cairo, Killing At Least One

Bridge connects Cairo’s sister city of Giza to its upscale Zamalek neighborhood

CAIRO—A police officer was killed and two others were injured when a device exploded on a crowded bridge bordering an upscale neighborhood of Egypt’s capital, security officials said Sunday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the blast fits a pattern of attacks in Egypt over the past year in which small bombs have exploded in civilian areas, causing casualties, mostly among security personnel.

Sunday’s blast targeted an overpass known as 15th of May Bridge near an exit for the central Cairo neighborhood of Zamalek, which sits on an island in the middle of the Nile river. The bridge connects Cairo to the city of Giza.

In recent months, such attacks have targeted light infrastructure such as electricity boxes and businesses affiliated with Western and Gulf companies, including mobile-phone stores.

Many people in Egypt see the attacks as targeting Egypt’s economy. Egypt’s finances have been propped up by foreign grants since the military coup that removed the nation’s first freely elected president, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, in July 2013 andreplaced him with Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

The Muslim Brotherhood has distanced itself from the bombings, consistently calling for peaceful protests against the government. But small local extremist groups are flourishing, and have claimed previous attacks on police and military personnel.

Egypt’s military has been waging a decadeslong battle with a radical Islamist insurgency in the North Sinai region that intensified sharply when Mr. Morsi was ousted. Mr. Sisi, the onetime military general, has struggled to contain the Sinai insurgents who on Thursday attacked several military checkpoints, killing 15 soldiers and two civilians.

The largest group there, Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, last year pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the Sunni militant group that controls large swaths of Iraq and Syria.

Write to Tamer El-Ghobashy at tamer.el-ghobashy@wsj.com