Egypt detains Brotherhood spokesman Haddad - sources

  
Egyptian police arrested Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad on Tuesday, three security officials said, a high-profile detention in the army-backed authorities crackdown on the Islamist movement.             

Haddad was arrested with two other Brotherhood officials in an apartment in Cairo. Haddad served as chief of staff to deputy Brotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater and is the son of Essam El-Haddad, the foreign affairs adviser of deposed President Mohamed Morsi.          

This comes after Egypt's official news agency said a Cairo court has upheld an order to freeze the assets of top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and a former Islamic militant group.           

MENA reported the Cairo Criminal Court on Tuesday upheld the order to "temporarily" freeze financial assets of Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and his deputies including strongman Khairat el-Shater and others. Most of those listed are already in detention, facing trial mostly over inciting violence and murder.           

The decision was initially made by the prosecutor general in July, in the aftermath of military's overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, who has been held in an undisclosed location since his ouster. He has been referred to trial for inciting the murder of his opponents last year.               


On the field:

Gunmen killed an Egyptian military officer and wounded three soldiers in an attack on an army vehicle northeast of Cairo, security sources said, raising concerns that an Islamist insurgency is spreading beyond the Sinai.
   
The number of militant attacks has risen since the army deposed President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood on July 3. Most of the attacks on the army have been limited to the relatively lawless Sinai.

Tuesday's attack took place in Sharkia province in the Nile Delta.


REUTERS/AP