Egyptian soldiers shot dead in Cairo attack blamed on Islamists

Egyptian soldier at a checkpoint in Cairo Gunmen killed six soldiers at a Cairo checkpoint Saturday in a brazen morning attack the military blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood movement of deposed president Mohamed Morsi. The attack came two days after gunmen killed a soldier in Cairo, as militants once based in the Sinai Peninsula increasingly target the capital in a campaign that has killed more than 200 security men since the army overthrew Morsi last July.
The assailants on Saturday opened fire on military policemen as they finished their morning Muslim prayers and then planted two bombs to target first responders, the military said in a statement.
The soldiers appeared to have had little opportunity to defend themselves. "They were praying," army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Ali told AFP.
The health ministry said six soldiers were killed in the attack, updating a previous toll.
Live television footage showed military sappers safely detonating one of the bombs near the checkpoint in the northern Cairo neighbourhood of Shubra al-Kheima.
An Egyptian private television station quoted an interior ministry official as saying one of the bombs left behind was planted next to a soldier's corpse.
About two dozen civilians gathered near the site and chanted: "Either we get justice for them, or we die like them."
Most of the attacks since Morsi's ouster have taken place in the Sinai, but in recent months militants have expanded their reach to the Nile Delta and the capital.
The government has blamed much of the attacks on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, which renounced violence decades ago and has denied any involvement.
"An armed group belonging to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood attacked a military police checkpoint," the military said of Saturday's attack.
The most prominent attacks, including a car bombing at a police headquarters in Cairo and the downing of a military helicopter in Sinai, have been claimed by Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem), a Sinai-based jihadist movement.
The group has said the attacks are in retaliation for a brutal government crackdown on Morsi's Islamist supporters, which Amnesty International says has claimed some 1,400 lives.
- Growing militancy -
Morsi was elected in Egypt's first-ever democratic presidential election, following the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's three-decade rule.
But his year in power bitterly polarised Egyptians, and last summer the military ousted him amid mass protests demanding his overthrow.
Since his overthrow and detention, his supporters have staged weekly rallies that often set off deadly clashes with security forces and Morsi opponents.
The army has meanwhile poured troops and armour into the lawless Sinai to combat the growing militancy, often targeting suspected gunmen with air strikes.
Analysts say the army campaign has led the jihadist militants in Sinai, some inspired by Al-Qaeda, to adapt by staging less frequent but more widespread attacks across the country.
With the Brotherhood decapitated by the crackdown, some of its members might also have decided to form militant cells to target policemen.
Militants have conducted a series of assassinations of police officers in the Nile Delta, including of a policeman who guarded one of the judges overseeing Morsi's trial.
Morsi, who was jailed following his overthrow, faces three separate trials for alleged involvement in the killing of opposition protesters and collusion with militants to carry out attacks in the country.
Source: AFP