Egyptian authorities revealed today that they arrested members of two recently emerged militant groups, along with weapons, explosives and evidence that the organisations had been set up by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Police detained five leaders and other members of the Hasam Movement and Louwaa Al-Thawra, the Interior Ministry said – both groups that have claimed responsibility for assassination attempts on judges, policemen and military officers.
There was no immediate comment from either organisation, or from the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, which says it is a peaceful movement and accuses the government of abuses.
The Brotherhood won Egypt’s first free elections after the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
But the Brotherhood leader who became president, Mohamed Morsi, was himself deposed by a militarily coup in 2013.
Read: Egypt’s El-Baradei called on to give evidence on allegations of crimes by Sisi regime
Since then, military man turned President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has overseen a crackdown on opposition in which hundreds of Brotherhood supporters were killed and thousands, including Morsi, were jailed or sentenced to death.
Both Hasam – an acronym in Arabic for the Forearms of Egypt Movement which doubles as the word for decisiveness – and Louwaa Al-Thawra, or the Revolution Brigade, have claimed responsibility for attacks, saying they are taking revenge for the government crackdown.
Earlier today, a judge who tried Morsi survived an assassination attempt when a parked car exploded as his vehicle drove by.
Public Prosecutor Hisham Barakat, who referred many Brotherhood leaders to trial, was killed in June 2015 by a car bomb. The Interior Ministry said today that it found letters from Brotherhood leaders admitting it carried out the assassination.
A senior Egyptian general was also shot dead by militants near his home in North Sinai today where a Daesh insurgency is raging, the second such incident in as many weeks.
Louwaa Al-Thawra claimed responsibility for a similar attack on 22 October.
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