Egypt’s Hasm militants claim attack targeting Myanmar embassy

CAIRO — Egyptian militant group Hasm claimed responsibility on Sunday for a small explosion at Myanmar’s embassy in Cairo, saying it was in retaliation for that country’s military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.

Egypt’s interior ministry has not commented on Saturday’s blast, which local residents and media initially reported as probably the result of a faulty gas pipeline, but two security sources told Reuters that traces of explosives had been found at the scene.

“This bombing serves as a warning to the embassy of murderers, killers of women and children in the Muslim Rakhine state, and in solidarity with the sons of this weakened Muslim population,” Hasm said in its statement.

It was the first time that Hasm, a group blamed for several attacks targeting judges and policemen around Cairo since last year, has claimed an attack on a civilian target.

“[We have used] utmost caution to ensure that there were no civilian casualties or innocent people [hurt] during the operation, or else you would have seen a burning hell you could not have stopped,” the Hasm statement said. 

Myanmar’s embassy could not be reached for comment. 

The latest wave of violence in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State began on August 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army camp, killing about 12 people.

The Myanmar military response has sent more than 410,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, escaping what they and rights monitors say is a campaign aimed at driving the Muslim population out of the majority-Buddhist country.

Egypt accuses Hasm of being a militant wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group it outlawed in 2013. The Muslim Brotherhood denies this.

Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police have been killed fighting an extremist insurgency in Sinai, which has gained pace since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood after mass protests against his rule in mid 2013.