Bomb Near Cairo Bus Raises Fear of Growing Terrorist Threat
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Deepening Political Polarization and Crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood Could Push Egyptians Toward Violent Groups
Security officials inspect the wreckage of a bus that was damaged by an explosion on Thursday in Cairo. APA Images/Zuma Press
A small bomb exploded near a municipal bus here on Thursday, raising fears that deepening political polarization of the country is fueling a violent insurgency.
The bombing, which injured five passengers, came two days after an apparent suicide car bombing killed 16 people at a police headquarters in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura.
The Mansoura and Cairo bombings this week show that the type of militant attacks that had been largely confined to remote and sparsely populated Sinai are now spreading to the densely populated heartland of Egypt as anger grows over a crackdown on the once-powerful Muslim Brotherhood group.
“If this battlefront for militants becomes Cairo and urban centers, then the prospect for the security situation and the human toll becomes pretty grim,” said Michael Hanna, an Egypt expert at the New York-based Century Foundation.
No group claimed responsibility for the bus bombing on Thursday, and the government didn’t assign blame.
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