CAIRO: Gunmen killed an Egyptian military officer and a soldier in an attack on an army vehicle northeast of Cairo yesterday, security sources said, raising concerns that an Islamist insurgency is taking hold beyond the Sinai.
Militant attacks have increased since the army deposed President Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood on July 3, following mass protests against his rule.
Most of the attacks on the army have been limited to the relatively lawless Sinai.
Yesterday’s attack, which also wounded an army officer and a soldier, took place in Sharkia province in the Nile Delta. The assailants, who were in a vehicle, opened fire with automatic weapons, security officials said.
Police arrested Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El Haddad yesterday, security officials said, the latest high-profile detention in the crackdown on the Islamist movement.
Haddad was detained with two other Brotherhood officials in an apartment in Cairo. He served as chief of staff to deputy Brotherhood leader Khairat El Shater and is the son of Essam El Haddad, an aide to Mursi.
Haddad, the Brotherhood’s main point of contact with international media before the crackdown, is charged with inciting the killing of protesters.
A court also upheld an order from the prosecutor’s office freezing the assets of 25 leading members of the Brotherhood and allied Islamist parties.
Haddad was arrested together with Hossam Abu Bakr, a provincial governor under Mursi, and Mahmoud Abu Zeid, a member of the group’s executive board.
A military court jailed three members for two years on charges of inciting violence, security officials said.
REUTERS
