6 injured in huge explosion in Egypt

“A man suddenly stopped his vehicle in front of the state security building, jumped out of it and fled on a motorbike that followed the auto”, authorities reportedly said in a statement.

There were no immediate reports of deaths from the explosion, which made a wide crater near the four-storey building, shattered its windows and destroyed a major part of the front portion of a surrounding wall, according to AFP news agency.

Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, who visited the scene of the blast on Thursday, called the attack “vile” and promised that attempts to cause chaos in Egypt would fail.

The main jihadist group in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula pledged allegiance to IS, which has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq, last November.

A similar claim of responsibility emerged last month following a bombing outside the Italian Consulate in Cairo. Six policemen were among those wounded in the explosion but officials said none of the injuries were life-threatening.

“With this sweeping new decree, Egypt’s president has taken a big step toward enshrining a permanent state of emergency as the law of the land”, HRW’s Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director Nadim Houry said.

Rights groups and political opponents blame increasingly repressive policies by the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi for fueling extremist sentiment.

A massive auto bomb claimed by Islamic State militants ripped into a national security building in a residential neighborhood in Cairo early Thursday, wounding at least 29 people and blowing the facades off nearby buildings.

Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. Journalists might be fined for reporting that contradicts Defence Ministry statements.

The passing of the law was sped up following the assassination of state prosecutor Hisham Barakat in June, and a large-scale attack in Sinai, which was launched days later.

The Egyptian military’s practice of scattering small checkpoints around northern Sinai, often manned by lightly armed and barely trained conscripts, has created an environment rich with targets for the militants, who [in the July attack] used suicide bombs, light arms, IEDs, and anti-aircraft guns affixed to trucks.

While the violence has been largely confined to northern Sinai, attacks are gradually spreading to other areas, including Cairo.