EGYPT: Attack on an army bus in Egypt leaves one officer dead and three others wounded

Record ID: 354387

  • Title: EGYPT: Attack on an army bus in Egypt leaves one officer dead and three others wounded
  • Date: 13th March 2014
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LOCAL RESIDENT, SOBHY AL-SHABRAWY SAYING: "I woke up in the morning when I was getting ready to go the school where I work and I heard gunshots. There was a bus picking up army officers taking them to their place of work and the bus driver parked to allow the passengers to get in. We heard gunshots being fired around 6:30 to 7:45."
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVABHR6MGF1RU7CMANOT96C206XH
  • Story Text: Egypt's army blamed the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood for an attack on an army bus which killed one officer and wounded three others in the capital on Thursday (March 13), violence underscoring growing security threats to the military-backed government.
    Masked gunmen had opened fire on the vehicle in central Cairo, security forces said.
    The shooting occurred early on Thursday in Cairo's Amariya neighbourhood, and several hours later there were still blood stains on the pavement.
    Local resident Sobhy al-Shabrawy said he was just waking up to go to his job as a chemistry teacher at a local school when he heard shooting.

    "I woke up in the morning when I was getting ready to go the school where I work and I heard gunshots. There was a bus picking up army officers taking them to their place of work and the bus driver parked to allow the passengers to get in. We heard gunshots being fired around 6:30 to 7:45," he said.
    Islamist militants are expanding their insurgency in Egypt where army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who overthrew Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July, is expected to announce he will run for president within days.
    The most active group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, has claimed responsibility for a series of high-profile attacks on senior security officials, including an assassination attempt on the interior minister last year.
    Al-Shabrawy said he saw young people on motorcycles speeding away from the scene of the shooting.

    "They [the shooters] were young people riding motorcycles, which happens all over the place. The whole incident happened in an instant. They drove off going against the flow of traffic. They sped up with the motorcycle and it did not have license plates. We are very tired from all that's happening. It's too much," he said.
    A security crackdown has devastated the Brotherhood, driving Egypt's most organised political organisation underground. The Brotherhood, which the interim government declared a terrorist group in December, says it is committed to peaceful activism and most of its leaders are in prison and it denies carrying out attacks.
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