'Terrorist' group Brotherhood blamed for deadly blast in Egypt, 14 killed

Cairo: At least 14 people were killed on Tuesday and over a hundred injured when a powerful car bomb ripped through a police headquarters, an attack blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood aimed at derailing Egypt's democratic transition.

The bomb ripped through the multi-storey police headquarters in Mansoura, a city in Nile delta north of Cairo, shortly after 1:00 am, killing at least 14 people and wounding 134, officials said.

"The majority of the casualties are from the police," said Omar al-Shawatsi, the governor of Daqahleya, of which Mansoura is the capital. Daqahleya security chief Sami El-Mihi was wounded in the blast and two of his aides were killed, security officials said.

The bombing comes ahead of the January 14 referendum on a new constitution seen as the first major step towards democracy after the Islamist president Mohammed Morsi's ouster earlier this year.

Hours after the bombing, interim prime minister Hazem Beblawi labelled the Muslim Brotherhood as a 'terrorist' group, accusing them of orchestrating the attack.

"This is an act of terrorism that aims at frightening the people and obstructing the roadmap. The black hands behind this act want to destroy the future of our country. The state will do its utmost to pursue the criminals who executed, planned and supported this attack," Beblawi told Egyptian TV channel ONTV.

The massive explosion- whose impact was felt about 20 kilometres away- stripped off the facade of the building and caused part of its structure to cave in and damaging parts of adjacent buildings which include the state's council, a theatre and a bank.

Interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim visited the site of the blast and said Egypt "will not be scared, on the contrary it will reinforce our determination to fight the terrorists". Meanwhile, The Brotherhood condemned the bombing "in the strongest possible terms", and lashed out at Beblawi. 

"It is no surprise that Beblawi, the military junta's puppet prime minister, has decided to exploit the blood of innocent Egyptians through inflammatory statements designed to create further violence, chaos and instability," the brotherhood said in a statement.

The 85-year-old Brotherhood, a political and social movement, came to power in Egypt last year following the overthrow of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011, and Morsi became the country's first freely elected leader.

Morsi was removed from power after massive street protests against his turbulent one-year rule, with millions accusing him of power-grabbing and economic mismanagement.

Since his ouster Egypt has been caught in a spiral of violence. More than 1,000 people have been killed in a crackdown on his Islamist supporters, including those in a massive clash on August 14 in Cairo when police stormed two protest camps.

The crackdown has seen thousands of Islamists, including the Brotherhood's entire leadership, arrested. After Morsi's ouster, the military-installed authorities announced a road map for a democratic transition.

On January 14 and 15 the country will hold a constitutional referendum - the first step in the plan. The charter, if approved, is to be followed by parliamentary and presidential elections by mid-2014. Today's bombing was not the first time that the security headquarters in Mansoura was targeted.

Weeks ago, an explosion went off in front of the building but caused no casualties. Militant Islamists have attacked several security headquarters with car bombs or by suicide bombers since Morsi's ouster.

The Mansoura attack came shortly after the Islamic militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis threatened more attacks on the military and police, saying it considers Egyptian troops to be infidels because they answer to the secular-leaning military-backed government.

The group gained notoriety after expanding its operations outside the restive northern Sinai province and has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly suicide attacks, including a failed assassination attempt on Egypt's Interior Minister in September.