Aftermath of car bomb blast outside Italian Consulate (Image, Reuters)

A group linked to the Islamic State have claimed responsibility for a car bombing outside of the Italian Consulate in Cairo which killed 1 person and injured several others. As it was not a working day there were few on the premises or casualties could have been much higher. MENA state news agency reported massive devastation, the front of the building suffered a partial collapse, water-pipes burst in the blast and the immediate area was flooded.

Alessandro Accorsi, journalist tweeted,

there are pieces of a destroyed car all over the place. police trying to clear the area. #Cairo #italianconsulate

He added,

the rest of a car under the bridge in front of the consulate (see below)

Journalists wishing to report on the incident were detained for arriving too early as the site was still being cleared. Accorsi tweeted shortly afterwards that he was being held (though not arrested) by police. His tweets read,

1 hour after the explosion and police finally starts to clear the area. they are saying that we got here too quickly.. #italianconsulate

police keeps asking us why we were here and how we could get here so fast. in meantime egyptian journalists are still allowed to walk arnd

An IS affiliate previously known as Sinai Province posted their statement of responsibility on the bombing on social media. IS operatives haven’t yet reached Rome in their advance of the Caliphate however they are edging ever closer with today’s attack on an Italian institution. They stated,

“through God’s blessing, Islamic State soldiers were able to detonate a parked car bomb carrying 450 kg of explosive material on the headquarters of the Italian consulate in central Cairo.”

Islamic State claims responsibility for attack on Italian Consulate, Cairo 

At the end of June, an earlier explosion hit Hisham Barakat, Egypt’s public prosecutor who died of a lacerated liver and internal bleeding after a bomb was placed under his car, 8 others were wounded. Barakat was responsible for sending many Muslim Brotherhood supporters to prison after the overthrow of democratically elected President Morsi in 2013 who came to power following the Arab Spring. Barakat had allegedly received death threats and was a focus for Islamists seeking revenge for their imprisonment. The Guardian reported that fighting between army and militants has increased recently in North Sinai region and has resulted in the deaths of over 100 fighters and 17 soldiers.

Yesterday Andalou Agency highlighted that former MP and dissident Ayman Nour criticised the current Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who replaced Morsi claiming he “has only Israel that supports him while his other Gulf allies – especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – are not supporting him as before.” Nour claimed “Sisi became a part of the crisis in Egypt, not a solution” and has committed “massacres.” Sisi has now declared war on IS so the brutal clampdown on anyone suspected of association with Islamist groups is set to escalate continuing an ever more bloody cycle of violence.

Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad . She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.