At least 25 policemen were killed when militants ambushed them in the border city of Rafah on Monday, in the deadliest attack in years described by the Government as a plot to “destabilise Egypt and terrify citizens”.
The brazen attack came hours after the Army-back interim Government said 36 Muslim Brotherhood members died during a botched prison breakout near Cairo, but the Islamist party offered a different version, saying its was a “cold-blooded” murder by the security forces.
The two incidents brought new challenges for the country’s Government as it struggles to deal with a tense stand-off with the Brotherhood that has left over 850 people dead since the security forces stormed two camps of supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi on August 14.
The supporters of Muslim Brotherhood have been staging demonstrations across the nation demanding reinstatement of Morsi — the country’s first freely elected president - since his removal on July 3 by the Army. Rafah, on the border between Egypt and Gaza, is the site of a key border crossing. In response to the attack, Egypt closed the crossing, State-run Nile TV reported.
The policemen were in two buses which came under attack from men armed with rocket-propelled grenades in the Sinai Peninsula.