Egyptian police kill two attackers trying to kill minister

CAIRO - Reuters

File photo: Egyptian man reacts as he stands next to the rubble of his house that was blown-up by the Egyptian army that says it housed an entrance to tunnels used to smuggle goods into neighbouring Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip, in the Egyptian town of Rafah on September 4, 2013. AFP photo

Egypt's interior minister survived an assassination attempt on Thursday when a bomb blew up as his convoy drove through Cairo's Nasr City district, state media and security officials said. 

Egyptian police killed two attackers who were trying to assassinate the interior minister.

Security sources said at least 10 people had been injured, but the minister, who lives in Nasr City, just outside the city centre, was not hurt.
 
The minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, has been among those responsible for a violent crackdown on supporters of Mohamed Mursi, the Islamist president ousted two months ago by the army following mass protests against his rule.
 
The security sources said a bomb had exploded near his convoy. The state-run Nile TV reported that Ibrahim had survived an assassination attempt. Initial reports suggested the device had been a car bomb but state TV later reported that it had been thrown from a building.
 
A Reuters reporter at the scene said witnesses had reported seeing a car explode while the minister's car was close by. Blood and pieces of flesh were scattered on the ground.

Egypt minister says attack just "the beginning"

Egypt's interior minister said a bomb attack on his convoy on Thursday was "not the end but the beginning" of a new wave of terrorism, but that the authorities would win out.
 
Responding to a question on whether the attack marked the start of "a new wave of terrorism", Mohamed Ibrahim said: "What happened today is not the end but the beginning".
 
He added that citizens needed to take care.

The military-backed government that took over from Morsi has killed hundreds of supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood, which it accuses of inciting violence and committing terrorist acts, and arrested most of its top leaders. Around 100 members of the security forces have also been killed.

Muslim Brotherhood leader condemns attack on minister
 
Senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Amr Darrag condemned an assassination attempt on Egyptian Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim on Thursday.
 
"The bombing allegedly targeting the minister of interior today is regrettable and the alliance strongly condemns it," Darrag said in a statement on behalf of the Islamist "Anti-Coup Alliance", led by the Muslim Brotherhood of ousted president Mohamed Mursi.
 
Ibrahim has helped to oversee a violent crackdown against supporters of Mursi and the Brotherhood, which the military-backed government accuses of terrorism.
 
Egypt faced an Islamist insurgency in the 1990s, when bombing and shooting attacks destabilised the country and hurt tourism.