Little-known group claims it killed senior Egyptian army officer

(theguardian)- A little-known Egyptian group has claimed responsibility for the killing of a senior Egyptian army officer outside his suburban Cairo home.

The claim came in a statement by the Banner of the Revolution group on social media accounts known to be sympathetic to militant groups. The claim’s authenticity could not be immediately verified.

Brig Gen Adel Ragai was the commander of the army 9th armoured division headquartered in the sprawling military base of Dahshour, west of Cairo. He had recently served in the northern part of the Sinai peninsula, where security forces have been fighting Islamic militants for years. The unit was also responsible for destroying smuggling tunnels that run between the Sinai and the Gaza Strip, according to reports.

The statement said Ragai’s driver and security guard were injured in the Saturday attack, which Egyptian media reported had been carried out by three masked gunmen.

The statement claimed the attack was in part in revenge for the killing earlier this month by security forces of Mohammed Kamal, a senior official of the now banned Muslim Brotherhood.

The only other attack for which Banner of the Revolution claimed responsibility was an August shooting at a checkpoint in Menoufiya province, north of Cairo, which left two policemen dead and wounded three other policemen and two civilians.

Hours after the attack on Ragai, the president, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, conferred with his prime minister, the defence and interior ministers and intelligence chief to review the security situation, according to a presidential statement. It said Sisi urged authorities to beef up security at vital installations, but gave no details.

Before the statement, suspicion fell on the local affiliate of the Islamic State group leading the fight against security forces in Sinai, and Hasm, or “Decisiveness”, a shadowy group suspected of links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Hasm has claimed responsibility in recent weeks for attacks in Cairo, including a shooting against the country’s former mufti, or chief Muslim theologian, and a car bomb against the chief prosecutor’s deputy. Both escaped unhurt.

The insurgency in Sinai has grown deadlier following the military’s 2013 ousting of an elected but divisive Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Sisi, himself a career army officer, said in a recent interview that he expected the war in Sinai to continue for a long time and that both sides in the conflict were getting better at fighting each other.