Gunmen kill 5 soldiers at Cairo checkpoint

Emergency crews spread out at the Cairo checkpoint where gunmen killed six soldiers, an attack the military blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood. (Ahmed Gamel, AFP/Getty Images / )

CAIRO -- Assailants targeted a checkpoint in a northern suburb of Cairo just after Saturday's dawn prayers, killing at least five soldiers in what the government denounced as a 'cowardly terrorist act.'

Armed forces spokesman Col. Ahmed Ali, in a statement, cast blame on the Muslim Brotherhood, which in December was formally designated a terrorist organization by the military-backed interim government.

However, other groups have claimed responsibilty for some of the attacks attributed by Egyptian authorities to the Brotherhood, the movement of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. The militant group Ansar Bayd Maqdis, or Partisans of Jerusalem, has been linked to some of the most violent and sophisticated attacks in recent months, some of those away from its Sinai base.

On Saturday, that group made an unusual announcement, disclosing the death of a founding member, Tawfik Freij, when explosives he was transporting went off prematurely. The incident, said to have occurred last week, was reported on websites used by militant organizations.

Freij was described as masterminding operations carried out by the group, including an attempt six months ago to kill Egypt's interior minister with a car bomb in Cairo.

In Saturday morning's checkpoint attack, the military police officers were gunned down, but assailants also planted three explosive devices, possibly with the intention of harming or killing would-be rescuers. Security forces safely defused two of them and set off the third in a controlled explosion, state media reported.

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Special correspondent Amro Hassan contributed to this report.

Laura.King@latimes.com

@laurakingLAT

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