Egyptian security forces on Monday deactivated three powerful homemade bombs outside a hospital in the province of Qalyubia, north of Cairo, and foiled an attack on a bank in the Mediterranean coastal city of Port Said. The bombs were found next to the wall surrounding the Nasser Hospital in the municipality of Shubra el-Kheima, state-run news agency Mena said. In Port Said, security forces arrested four people who were planning to blow up a branch of Suez Bank. The four arrested men were in possession of weapons and cash, and one of them tried to flee from the police station by jumping off of a balcony, but he was captured and taken to the hospital. These incidents come after the National Coalition for the Defense of Legitimacy accused “the coupmongers” – those who carried out the July 3 ouster of President Mohammed Morsi – of planning attacks with explosives. The coalition, which includes the Muslim Brotherhood, said Sunday night that it has information showing that the new Egyptian authorities have plans to carry out attacks and blame them on Morsi supporters. In a communique, the Islamists repeated that the demonstrations in favor of Morsi are peaceful and that that is “the secret to (their) strength.” To find a way out of the crisis in which Egypt is mired, international mediation efforts have intensified in recent days, efforts in which U.S. and European Union representatives – William Burns and Bernardino Leon, respectively – are participating. Morsi won the presidency in a democratic election, but alienated many Egyptians by his failure to remedy the country’s economic woes and an agenda that was seen as too subservient to the Brotherhood. The army forced him from office after days of large anti-government demonstrations. EFE
Aug62013