Egypt army says car bomb used in Nile Delta blast

      
Egypt's army said a car bomb was used in the attack on a security compound in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura early on Tuesday which killed 12 and wounded more than a hundred.
   
The army spokesman described the attack as a "vile terrorist operation ... carried out by a car bomb" in a statement posted on Facebook.

This as a powerful explosion rocked a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city north of Cairo early on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens, according to the state news agency and a security official.          

The interim government accused the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the attack, branding it a "terrorist organization."            

The Middle East News Agency quoted Cabinet spokesman Sherif Shawki as saying that the Muslim Brotherhood showed its "ugly face as a terrorist organization, shedding blood and messing with Egypt's security."            

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in Mansoura, 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Cairo. The attack came a day after an Al-Qaida-inspired group called on police and army personnel to desert or face death at the hands of its fighters.           

The militant group, based in Egypt's volatile Sinai, and several others have claimed responsibility for a surge of attacks on security forces since a popularly-backed coup in July toppled the country's former Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood.                

In response, Egypt's armed forces launched an offensive against militants in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula in August. Coupled with the offensive and with Morsi ousted and imprisoned, Egyptian investigators have moved to put him on trial for links to militants, accusing him and the Brotherhood of being behind the wave of violence in Sinai.             

According to MENA, the explosion took place at 1:10 a.m. at the security headquarters in the city of Mansoura, in the Nile Delta province of Daqahliya, collapsing part of the five-floor building. A security official says 14 people were killed and nearly 100 injured, including the city's security chief. Most of those killed were police officers inside the headquarters, their bodies buried beneath the debris.               

It was the first major attack in the Nile Delta, spreading the carnage to a new area and bringing it closer to Cairo. Previous violence that killed scores of people happened in Sinai, or in Suez Canal-area cities such as Islamilia.             

Shortly after the Mansoura bombing, security forces cordoned off the whole area, closed major entrances and exits to the city and set up checkpoints to search for perpetrators, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.              

The death toll is expected to rise, he said. State TV called on residents to rush to hospitals to donate blood.                

The official added that the preliminary investigation indicated a car bomb caused the explosion. The explosion also damaged surrounding buildings, including a bank and a theater, and wrecked dozens of vehicles, MENA said.              

Egypt's Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi described the attack as a "terrorist incident," and expressed condolences to the families of the victims and vowed that the perpetrators "will not escape justice."             

Tuesday's bombing was not the first time that the security headquarters in Mansoura was targeted. Weeks ago, an explosion went off in front of the building but caused no casualties. Since the summer coup that ousted Morsi, militant Islamists have attacked several security headquarters with car bombs or by suicide bombers.        

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Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood condemned a bomb attack on a security compound in the Nile Delta town of Dakahlyia which killed 14 people and wounded more than 100 early on Tuesday.     

"The Muslim Brotherhood condemns in the strongest possible terms the attack on the police headquarters in Mansoura (region)," an emailed statement from the group's London press office said.         

"The Muslim Brotherhood considers this act as a direct attack on the unity of the Egyptian people and demands an inquiry forthwith so that the perpetrators of this crime may be brought to justice."


AP/REUTERS