ONE KILLED AFTER MULTIPLE BLASTS HIT CAIRO

Cairo, 7 Jumadil Awwal 1436/26 February 2015 (MINA) – One person was killed in a bombing outside a pizzeria in the Egyptian capital Thursday (26/2) as other blasts hit a police station and offices of cell phone companies, a health official said.

The bomb tore off the legs of the victim who was pronounced dead in hospital, health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar told AFP. Two other people were wounded, Palestinian Information Center (PIC) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Hours later, an explosion outside a police station in the north of the capital wounded a police conscript and three passersby, police officials said.

Bombs also went off outside two offices of British firm Vodafone and a branch of United Arab Emirates-owned Etisalat in Cairo, damaging the store fronts but causing no casualties but wounding two people, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP.

The branches were closed at the time of the explosions.

It was not immediately clear why the cell phone companies and restaurant were targeted, but General Hany Abdel Latif said authorities had been on the alert for attacks in the runup to parliamentary elections next month.

Militants have set off dozens of bombs in the capital since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Mursi in July 2013 and cracked down on his supporters, killing hundreds of protesters in street clashes.

Most of the bombs have been rudimentary and caused no casualties.

But several have killed policemen, including two senior officers killed while attempting to defuse bombs planted outside the presidential palace in June last year.

In the Sinai Peninsula where they are based, militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group have killed scores of soldiers and policemen since Mursi’s overthrow. (T/P006/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)