Obscure Group Says It Set Off Blast in Egypt, Raising Alarm
 MERNA THOMAS and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK Feb. 26, 2015 CAIRO —

A wave of explosions killed a passer­by and wounded 10 other people early Thursday morning across the Nile from Cairo, raising alarms about a pattern of attacks by diffuse groups against retail stores. An obscure group calling itself the Popular Resistance Movement claimed responsibility. Six bombs exploded on main arteries of the Giza district in what appeared to have been a well ­coordinated attack. The ability to carry out the attacks highlighted the growing threat posed by such previously unknown outfits cropping up in Cairo and around the Nile Valley. The new groups have no apparent ties to Egypt’s main extremist organizations, based in the North Sinai. The main extremist group there has killed hundreds of soldiers and police officers in a campaign of assaults on security forces since the military’s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013, and the organization recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The government of President Abdel Fattah el­Sisi has tried to seal off and crush the militants in part by drastically tightening security at the limited crossings into the Sinai Peninsula. But the new groups, though so far less deadly, may be harder to isolate and appear more focused on purely civilian targets.
The group that claimed responsibility Thursday signaled that the bombings were intended to sabotage a government­ sponsored investment conference scheduled for next month; Mr. Sisi, who led the military takeover,has made the conference a centerpiece of his plans to jump­ start the struggling economy. Security officials said that four bombs were detonated within about a half hour starting at 6 a.m. near four mobile telephone shops — three belonging to Vodafone, and one belonging to Etisalat, according to the state media. Vodafone Egypt, a 45 ­percent Egyptian­ owned subsidiary of the British telecommunications giant, is participating in the economic conference. Etisalat is based in the United Arab Emirates, a leading sponsor of the Sisi government and a backer of the conference. One person was killed, in the poor neighborhood of Imbaba, and four others were injured. About 8:30, two bombs exploded near a police station, injuring four officers and one civilian, security officials said. The bombings followed a sharp escalation over the last three months in other attacks that have taken aim at the transportation system or businesses. Unknown attackers have hit several Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises, an Emirates NBD Bank branch and a gas station linked to the Emirates, among other targets. Most of the attacks have involved primitive improvised explosive devices or Molotov cocktails, and most have involved only small numbers of casualties. In statements posted on social media, the Popular Resistance Movement said it struck Vodafone Egypt “in response to Vodafone International’s announcement that it will participate in the conference to sell Egypt” and Etisalat “in response to the United Arab Emirates contribution to supporting the coup.” “The Popular Resistance warns that it has resumed its activities against the criminal forces, the killers of the honorable, the violators of sanctities, and the torturers of children,” the statements said, asking that “the crowds of Egyptian people to avoid being present near police stations, in order to allow our heroes to deal with them.” The group claims to have cells in the province of Minya and elsewhere but it is most active in Giza. Another new group, calling itself Revolutionary Punishment, also says it has followers in several provinces. Michael Hanna, a researcher on Egypt at the Century Foundation in New York, said it seemed only “happenstance” that only a few civilians were killed in the growing number of small bombings of civilian targets in a crowded city. “Does something like this signal a tactical shift,” he said, “so that people are seeking to kill civilians as a goal?” “The biggest question out there,” he added, was whether Egypt would remain exempt from the pattern of terrorists seeking to maximize civilian casualties. “And how long can it be different?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/world/middleeast/egypt-giza-bomb-explosions.html?ref=middleeast