The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a car bombing at the Italian consulate in central Cairo on Saturday, in an apparent escalation of violence that suggests militants are opening a new front against foreigners in Egypt.
“Through God’s blessing, Islamic State soldiers were able to detonate a parked car bomb carrying 450kg of explosive material on the headquarters of the Italian consulate in central Cairo,” the group said on a Web site that carries its statements.
“We recommend that Muslims stay clear of these security dens, because they are legitimate targets for the mujahidin’s strikes,” the statement said.
Until now, supporters of the Islamic State in Egypt had not set their sights on Western targets, focusing instead on security forces.
An Egyptian Ministry of Health spokesman said one Egyptian civilian was killed and 10 wounded.
State news agency MENA separately said two police officers were among the wounded.
The blast heavily damaged the consulate and nearby homes, shook other buildings downtown and could be heard in several surrounding neighborhoods.
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Paolo Gentiloni said there were no Italian victims in the blast.
“Italy will not be intimidated,” he added on Twitter.
Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab said the country was at war and urged the world to unite against terrorism after the attack, a state-run newspaper reported.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the former army commander elected mostly on promises that he would deliver stability, has said militancy poses an existential threat to Egypt, other Arab states and the West.
One of the toughest security crackdowns in Egypt’s history has weakened the mainstream Muslim Brotherhood group, blamed by security officials for small-scale bombings.
The Muslim Brotherhood, removed from power by the army in 2013, says it is a peaceful movement.
The Islamic State group’s Egyptian affiliate, based in Sinai, remains resilient despite steady pressure from military fighter jets, attack helicopters and ground troops.
The group has been escalating bombing and shooting attacks on soldiers and police since the military deposed former Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. Hundreds have died.
The attack at the Italian consulate raises the stakes in the struggle between militants and the government, which has just started rebuilding an economy battered by four years of turmoil since an uprising toppled former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
It also highlighted the Islamic State’s purported reach after it seized large portions of Iraq and Syria, expanded into Libya and more recently claimed responsibility for attacks in France, Kuwait and Tunisia.
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
RSS