Cairo blast kills 6 policemen

CAIRO – An explosion near a security checkpoint on a main road in Cairo killed six police officers and wounded three others Friday.The explosion occurred on a road which leads to the Giza pyramids and is often filled with tour buses. It smashed several cars and broke the windows of police SUVs, leaving debris and gravel strewn about the area.

A security cordon has been put in place around the site of the attack, with masked troops standing guard with automatic weapons as investigators inspect the scene.

A group called Hasm or “Decisiveness” claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted online.

“There is no safety or security for you as long as we hold our weapons in jihad for God; there is either victory or martyrdom,” the statement read.

The Egyptian government suspects the group, which has carried out previous attacks in Cairo, is linked to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.

The attack marks the deadliest Cairo has seen since May, when gunmen killed eight police officers in plainclothes after opening fire on a microbus.