Explosion kills 1, wounds over a dozen in Egypt

Car bomb reportedly targets military base near Ismailia, a major city on the Suez Canal

See more Times of Israel on Google - add us as a Preferred Source

By AP 12 December 2013, 9:29 pm Edit

A bomb exploded outside a camp for Egyptian security forces in Suez Canal city killed at least one person and wounded more than a dozen others Thursday, Egypt’s official news agency said.

MENA said the explosives were planted in the ground outside the gate of a Central Security Forces camp at the entrance to Ismailia. It said the person killed was a member of the CSF, and that 18 people were wounded including six civilians.

Earlier, a security official said the explosion was caused by a car bomb, based on the presence of car wreckage outside the camp.

Egypt has been hit with a string of car bombs and suicide attacks since the July 3 military coup that ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, including an attempted assassination of the country’s interior minister.

The military has pursued a wide-ranging offensive in the eastern Sinai Peninsula in an attempt to drive Islamic militants from villages near border with the Gaza Strip and Israel.

In the latest of a stepped-up campaign of attacks against troops, a suicide car bomber hit a bus convoy of off-duty Egyptian soldiers last month in Sinai, killing 11 soldiers and wounding 37.