Bomb blast hits bus in Egypt's capital, wounding 5

CAIRO (AP):

A bomb blast hit a public bus in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, yesterday, wounding five people, the Interior Ministry said, in an attack that raised concerns that a wave of violence, blamed on Islamic militants that has targeted security forces and military for months, is increasingly turning to hit civilians.

The blast came a day after the government declared its top political nemesis, the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organisation, accusing it of being behind the violence. The group has denied the claim, saying the government is trying to scapegoat it.

Egypt saw the deadliest bombing yet earlier this week, when a suicide bomber hit a police headquarters in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura on Tuesday, killing 16 people, mainly police.

In yesterday's attack, a home-made bomb planted in a main intersection went off as a public bus passed in the eastern Cairo district of Nasr City, Interior Ministry said in a statement. Authorities then found at least one more bomb attached to an advertisement billboard, apparently intended to hit security forces who responded to the first, state TV reported. The other two explosives were defused.

The explosion shattered windows on the bus, and flying glass injured five people, one of them seriously, the ministry said.