Car bomb blast in Cairo leaves Six Egyptian police officers injured

People gather near the scene where a bomb exploded early Thursday, August 20, 2015, near a national security building in the Shubra el-Kheima neighborhood of Cairo.

The Egyptian interior ministry says a man fled on a motorbike after leaping out of a vehicle which then exploded.

Eyewitnesses said a number of nearby buildings were also damaged.

Militants based in Sinai who support Islamic State, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria and has a presence in Egypt’s neighbour Libya, have proven resilient despite military operations against them.

Inside his ruined clinic next door to the security building, plastic surgeon Gawad Mahmoud lamented Egypt’s troubles since the military ousted Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president, amid massive protests against his divisive yearlong rule.

The latest of those came Thursday, when militants loyal to Islamic State claimed responsibility for a powerful auto bomb that detonated before dawn outside a security headquarters on Cairo’s run-down northern outskirts, causing dozens of injuries. Human Rights Watch reported that the men were part of a group of nine convicted for launching multiple attacks on police and killing two armed forces officers in a shootout in 2014. Last week, Sinai Province said it had beheaded a Croatian working for an oil-exploration firm, abducted earlier on Cairo’s outskirts.

Experts said the group appeared to have changed its strategy in its fight against the Egyptian authorities.

A new anti-terrorism law was finalised this month. Morsi himself was also given a death sentence along with other senior brotherhood members, a verdict which is now subject to appeal.

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 judiciary and security forces already had wide-ranging powers in tackling “terrorism”, and Sisi’s regime has been accused of using the battle against jihadists as a pretext for crushing dissent.

A local IS-affiliated militant organization which calls itself “Sinai Province” has played a prominent role in a wave of attacks on security forces that has left hundreds dead.

Though criticised by rights activists, supporters of Egyptian president have backed the crackdown on political opponents.