CAIRO
Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim on Thursday linked the Muslim Brotherhood and the Gaza-based Hamas movement to last week's deadly bombing in Egypt's Nile Delta city of Mansoura.
"Initial investigations revealed that the terrorist Brotherhood organization is involved in recent acts of violence in the country," Ibrahim told a press conference.
At least 16 people, mostly policemen, were killed when a deadly blast rocked a Mansoura security headquarters on December 24.
According to Ibrahim, the son of Brotherhood leader Al-Mongi Saad Hussein – in conjunction with militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which claimed responsibility for the attack – was behind the attack.
Ibrahim went on to accuse Hamas of providing "training to Brotherhood members on the use of weapons and missiles with the help of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis."
Following the Mansoura attack, the Egyptian government officially designated the Brotherhood, the movement from which ousted president Mohamed Morsi hails, as a "terrorist" organization.
The Brotherhood, however, denied any involvement in the attack, which it denounced as an "act of terror."
Ibrahim alleged that the Brotherhood had opened "channels of communication" with Hamas during Morsi's single year in office.
"In return, Hamas provided all forms of logistical support to Brotherhood members," he said.
Ibrahim said security agencies had arrested seven people in connection with last week's Mansoura bombing.
- Hamas dismisses accusations as 'groundless'
Meanwhile, Hamas categorically denied Egyptian accusations that it had offered training and logistical assistance to the perpetrators of a deadly bombing last week in Egypt's Nile Delta city of Mansoura.
"Accusations leveled by Egypt's interior minister are entirely groundless," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Anadolu Agency.
The Egyptian allegations, Abu Zuhri added, "are an attempt to mislead the Egyptian people and blame the Egyptian crisis on others."
Relations between Egypt and Hamas, the latter of which is an ideological offshoot of the Brotherhood, have deteriorated dramatically since Morsi's July 3 ouster by the military.
Egypt has also launched an all-out crackdown on a network of smuggling tunnels linking Israel-blockaded Gaza to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which had been used by the strip's almost two million inhabitants to smuggle desperately-needed commercial goods into the Palestinian enclave.
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