5 Sep 2013

Car bomb targets Egyptian minister

10:00 pm on 5 September 2013

A car bomb has targeted the convoy of Egypt's Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim but failed to harm the politician, the security forces say.

At least four people were reported injured in the blast, which media reports call an assassination attempt.

State-run al-Ahram paper said the minister's convoy was targeted as it travelled through Nasr City.

Nasr City is a stronghold of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group, but there is no word on who was involved.

Egyptian police have reportedly killed two of the attackers, security sources told Reuters news agency.

The BBC reports the interior minister is in charge of the country's police force, which alongside security forces, carried out a deadly security crack down in the capital last month, clearing two protest camps set up by Muslim Brotherhood supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

Nasr City was the site of the larger of the two protest camps based outside Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, which was dismantled in the security operation on 14 August.