Explosion rocks bus in Cairo's Nasr City district

At least 4 injured; attack comes after Egypt declares Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization; suicide bomb attack kills 16 days earlier.

By REUTERS
muslim brother supporters protest 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
muslim brother supporters protest 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
CAIRO - A blast hit a public bus in Cairo's Nasr City district on Thursday, injuring at least 4 people, the BBC reported.
The homemade device had been put on a traffic island and a second one, found nearby, was being dismantled, Hani Abdel Latif said. State television showed footage of a bus with its windows blown out.
The attack comes after the Egyptian government intensified its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, formally listing the group as a terrorist organization after accusing it of carrying out a suicide bomb attack on a police station that killed 16 people earlier in the week.

The government’s move gives authorities the power to charge any member of deposed president Mohamed Morsi’s movement with belonging to a terrorist group, as well as anyone who finances the group or promotes it “verbally or in writing.”

The Brotherhood, which was founded in 1928, was Egypt’s best-organized political force until this summer’s crackdown. It estimates its membership at up to 1 million people.

The government decision is the latest step in a crackdown that has put thousands of Brotherhood supporters in jail, including most of the group’s top leadership.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters have been killed in the crackdown by security forces, and the group has already been banned by a court that ordered its assets to be seized.

Since Morsi’s downfall, at least 350 members of the security forces have been killed in bombings and shootings.