CAIRO — Egypt’s interior minister narrowly escaped assassination Thursday when a car bomb tore through his convoy, wounding 22 people and leaving a major Cairo boulevard strewn with debris — the first such attack since the military ousted the country’s Islamist president.
The strike raised fears of a militant campaign of revenge for the coup and the likelihood of an even tougher hand by authorities in the crackdown against protesters demanding Mohammed Morsi’s return to office.
The bombing targeted Mohammed Ibrahim, who heads the police force waging the crackdown. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Interim President Adly Mansour’s office vowed it would “not allow the terrorism the Egyptian people crushed in the 1980s and ’90s to raise its ugly head again.”
Military leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the man who ousted Morsi, pledged to continue the fight against terrorism.
Egyptian media have for weeks vilified the protesters, blaming the violence on Morsi’s supporters and a terrorism campaign. After Thursday’s attack, state media urged citizens to exercise caution, report suspicious activities or individuals, and called on authorities to widen their crackdown on terrorism suspects.
