Cairo: 6 dead as bomb goes off at police checkpoint

On 9 december, a bomb exploded next to a police checkpoint in Cairo, killing at least six people, state media and officials said.

State television reported that the bombing occurred in Talibiya district in the west of the capital.

A police conscript was seen prone at the blast site, an AFP photographer reported. It was not immediately clear whether all those killed were policemen.

The bombing took place shortly before the Friday prayers, when Cairo's streets are mostly empty.

Militants have repeatedly attacked policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and unleashed a bloody crackdown on his followers. Most of the attacks are conducted in the Sinai Peninsula by a branch of the Islamic State group.

But militants have also targeted security forces and government officials in the capital.

An Egyptian judge in one of the trials of Morsi, who was detained after his ouster, escaped unharmed last month when a car bomb exploded in the capital as he drove by. That attack came days after a roadside bombing targeting a police convoy in Cairo killed a passerby.

In September, militants set off a car bomb as the country's deputy state prosecutor was passing. He too escaped unharmed.

--PTI