Egypt’s government has stated that a car packed with explosives caused an explosion near a medical center in Cairo, resulting in at least 20 fatalities and 47 injuries.
In a statement released on Monday, the interior ministry explained that the car was traveling against traffic the previous night when it collided with three other vehicles, triggering a significant blast in front of Cairo’s main cancer hospital.
“The car contained explosives, and the collision led to their detonation,” the ministry said.
According to the ministry, “It is estimated that the car was being transported to a location for use in the execution of a terrorist operation.”
The government has accused the Hasm group of rigging the car with explosives. However, authorities did not clarify whether they believed the attack was intended to occur elsewhere on Sunday or whether the explosives were being transported for a future attack.
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Egypt alleges that Hasm, which emerged in 2016 and has claimed responsibility for several attacks, is a wing of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Timothy Kaldas, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, expressed skepticism about the quick assignment of blame, stating that it was unlikely that Egyptian authorities possessed sufficient information at that point to definitively conclude that Hasm was responsible.
“The Hasm group has been largely inactive for the last couple of years. You hear from them occasionally but they haven’t been nearly as active as they have been in the past."
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