Egypt pledges continued crackdown after bomb attacks
Egyptian security forces are on high alert in the wake of apparent terror attacks during the Coptic Christmas season.
CAIRO — Egypt has stepped up security, hunting down and killing 40 alleged terrorists they blame for one of two deadly explosions apparently timed to disrupt the Coptic Christmas season.
The Egyptian Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement that bomb squad member Maj. Mostafa Obeid was killed while trying to defuse an explosive device placed in a bag near the Church of the Virgin Mary and St Mercurius in Nasr City east of Cairo. Two other police officers were wounded in the attack Jan. 5, two days before the Orthodox Christmas.
The device was one of four planted around the church. Three others were disarmed without incident.
That attack came a little more than a week after a makeshift roadside bomb exploded Dec. 28 near a tour bus carrying 14 Vietnamese tourists in the Mariutiya neighborhood of Giza. Three tourists and their Egyptian guide were killed, and 10 others on the bus were injured.
