Two dead as bombs hit Cairo telecom centre

CAIRO — Two bombings on Saturday in a Cairo suburb killed a teenager and her mother, officials said, the latest in a wave of blasts to hit the Egyptian capital this week.

Militants have stepped up attacks after the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 and amid a deadly crackdown by authorities on his supporters.

The makeshift bombs planted in a telecommunications being built in the October 6 suburb were detonated by a mobile phone signal at around 9am (0700 GMT), a police investigator told AFP.

Medics said the watchman’s wife and 18-year-old daughter were killed.

Residents said the powerful blast rattled windows in nearby buildings.

Saturday’s explosion comes after five makeshift bombs at four Cairo metro stations on Wednesday and a sixth at a courthouse wounded six people.

The authorities have blamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood for attacks rocking the country, most of which have targeted security forces, and have blacklisted the Islamist movement as a terrorist organisation.

Since Morsi’s ouster, a crackdown on his supporters has left more than 1,400 people dead and seen at least 15,000 jailed.

Hundreds have also been sentenced to death.

An Al Qaeda-inspired jihadist group based in the Sinai Peninsula, Ansar Beit Al Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem), has claimed some of the deadliest attacks on security forces, as well as a failed attempt to assassinate the interior minister in September.

A little-known jihadist group, Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt), has also said it was behind a string of attacks on police in Cairo.

The government says the militants have killed about 500 people, most of them security personnel.