'Soldiers of Egypt' Claim Responsibility for Cairo University Bomb Attack

A jihadist group has claimed responsibility for a bomb which exploded on Saturday outside the entrance to the metro station serving Cairo University.

The militant group Ajnad Misr [Soldiers of Egypt] has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack, which according to Egyptian authorities, wounded four civilians and four police officers on Saturday, making it the latest in a string of bombings the group has carried out outside the university. 

In a Sunday website post, the militant group claimed to have planted the bomb at a security force post close to the university, resulting in the deaths of four police officers and avoiding injuries to passers-by. Representatives of the Egyptian Health Ministry and police force, however, reported that four civilians were wounded.

The group previously claimed responsibility in January for a bomb which killed a bomb disposal officer in the Talbia district in Giza, 20 kilometers southwest of Cairo, and another attack in November which left five policemen wounded.

Ajnad Misr first emerged in January 2014 when it claimed to have been responsible for terrorist attacks on security forces in Cairo that month, and generally focus their attacks on elements of the Egyptian state, targeting members of the police force and military.

According to the Tahrir Institute, "Ajnad Misr is the only terrorist group operating exclusively in the Greater Cairo area," and the most active one operating outside the Sinai peninsula, where violence has escalated since the ousting of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013. In contrast to Sinai jihadi groups, says the think-tank, Ajnad Misr "does not fully insist on the establishment of an Islamic caliphate," and employs the language of the January 2011 revolution.