A powerful bomb killed Egypt’s top prosecutor as he drove to work Monday morning, broadening the violent insurgency against the government that militants have been waging for two years.
Hisham Barakat is the most senior official to be killed in Egypt since the insurgency began in 2013, after the military ousted the country’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
General Osama Bedeir, chief of security in Cairo, said the bomb was in a car parked along Barakat’s route and was probably detonated by remote control.
Photo: AP
The apparently sophisticated mode of attack foiled security measures that were meant to protect a high official who had repeatedly received death threats.
The daylight assassination of so senior a figure was a blow to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who rose to power on a promise to restore stability after years of political tumult. His government has justified a broad crackdown against Islamists and other opponents as necessary to eradicate the threat from militants.
This month, militants carried out separate attacks near the pyramids at Giza and the Karnak temple in Luxor, two of Egypt’s most popular tourist destinations, further denting the government’s efforts to project order.
Monday’s attack appeared to set Egypt on a course for more violence. The killing of Barakat was seen as likely to embolden the militants while prompting an even more forceful response from the security services.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
As one of the nation’s most prominent judicial officials, Barakat was a focal point for militant groups vowing retaliation for the prosecutions of hundreds of Islamists and the death sentences handed down against senior Brotherhood leaders, including Morsi.
Many of Barakat’s prosecutions had also been criticized by human rights advocates, who said the cases were built on flimsy evidence and politically motivated charges.
Analysts said the bombing might have been the work of one of a number of militant groups that have surfaced in the last year with smaller-scale attacks.
The emergence of these groups, with names like Revolutionary Punishment, have added to longstanding fears in Egypt that Islamists and other opponents of the government would turn to violence in response to the government’s crackdown.
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