ANHRI condemns attack that killed five military policemen

Egyptian soldiers and officials inspect the sight where gunmen killed six soldiers at a Cairo checkpoint on March 15, 2014 in an attack the military blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood movement of deposed president Mohamed Morsi. The attack came two days after gunmen killed a soldier in Cairo, as militants once based in the Sinai Peninsula increasingly target the capital in a campaign that has killed more than 200 security men since the army overthrew Morsi last July. (AFP PHOTO / AHMED GAMEL) — Egyptian soldiers and officials inspect the sight where gunmen killed six soldiers at a Cairo checkpoint on March 15, 2014.
(AFP PHOTO / AHMED GAMEL)

The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) released a statement Saturday condemning the early morning attack on a Mostorod checkpoint that left at least five military policemen dead.

According to eyewitness testimonies, four gunmen emerged from a car and fired on the checkpoint in an attack that ANHRI called “black terrorism”: targeting innocent soldiers, and aiming at spreading fear and chaos in Egypt.

The statement added that the gunmen planted two bombs that targeted the rescue forces that appeared at the scene. The bombs were diffused without injury.

“ANHRI calls for opening an immediate and urgent investigation into the incident of killing the six soldiers. As well, it demands to ensure the perpetrators are held responsible, and to make them stand trial,” the statement concludes, adding that “the rule of law and justice is the most important way to counter terrorism as well as the attempts to intimidate citizen”.

The statement reported that six soldiers were killed. The official number, according to the military spokesperson, is five.

Army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Ali attributed the shooting to an armed group affiliated with the “Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organisation”, although he offered no evidence of the connection.

Colonel Ali sent condolences to the families of the fallen soldiers, adding that such “cowardly attacks” would not happen again.