Four explosions largely targeting the police rocked Cairo on the eve of the third anniversary of the January 25 revolution. The first and largest of the bombs, delivered using a pickup truck, detonated outside the Cairo Security Directorate in the city’s Bab al-Khalq area. The explosion “caused extensive damage to the front of the [Directorate]” and also severely damaged the Museum of Islamic Art and the National Library and Archives facility. The second bombing reportedly targeted a police vehicle by a metro station in the Dokki district, while the third and fourth blasts took place in Giza, the former near the Taleybia police station and the latter near the Radobis Cinema.
A total of six people are believed to have died as a result of the widely-condemned bombings. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a militant group based in the Sinai Peninsula, has claimed responsibility for the attacks; the group had earlier claimed responsibility for the car-bomb assassination attempt on Interior Minister Muhammad Ibrahim in Cairo last September. Following the bombings, demonstrators gathered near the Security Directorate, yelling slogans against the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorism.
The bombings came amid clashes around the country between supporters of deposed President Muhammad Morsi and the military. A total of 14 were killed according to official sources, with violence reported in Alexandria, Beni Suef, New Damietta, and elsewhere.