Bomb explodes near Cairo supreme court

Dozen injured in attack in downtown Cairo

A dozen people were injured after a homemade bomb exploded near the supreme court in downtown Cairo during the night of 14 October, according to the country's interior ministry.

The incident followed the court's decision to sentence seven Islamic militants to death over their alleged role in killing 25 off-duty policemen in the area around the northern town of Rafah near the Gaza border last year.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occured in a busy area near the Gamal Abdel Naser metro station and is the second such incident in Cairo in less than a month. In September three policemen were killed near the foreign ministry in an attack claimed by Islamist militant group Ajnad Misr.

There have been numerous suicide bombings, assassinations and attacks since former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, followed by Sisi's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood which he declared a terrorist organisation. This led to widespread demonstrations by Islamists across Egypt but due to the extent of the ongoing clamp down these public protests have waned.

However in recent months Egypt has faced rising Islamist militant violence against its security forces, much of it at the hands of the radical al-Qaeda-inspired group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (ABM) or Supporters of Jerusalem which has been based in the northern Sinai region since it was founded in 2011.

Human rights groups claim that since universities resumed this October, security forces have quelled student protests, arrested over 100 students, and maintain a permanent presence at a number of college campuses.