Pro-Morsi Bloc Challenges Govt Account Of Egypt Killings

Ousted president Mohamed Morsi's main support bloc on Friday rejected claims by security forces that the death of three Morsi supporters one day earlier had been caused by the premature detonation of bombs they had made with the aim of blowing up a church in Egypt's central Fayoum province.

"The Interior Ministry's account is categorically false," read a Friday statement by the pro-Morsi National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy.

The alliance said an unknown assailant had thrown a bomb into a house in which the three individuals had been meeting on Thursday night following a day of protests marking one year since Morsi's removal by the military.

"The house was destroyed after the blast caused a cooking gas cylinder to explode," read the statement.

The alliance went on to accuse security forces of being behind the attack.

"The malicious hand of the security apparatus seems to be adopting new criminal tactics, which will only lead to popular revenge," the alliance said, reiterating its "commitment to peaceful revolt no matter the sacrifices."

Earlier Friday, the Fayoum Security Directorate said in a statement that three members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group had been killed when an explosive device went off prematurely in a workshop in the village of Abu Kasah.

"The workshop was used by the Brotherhood to manufacture explosives," the statement read, claiming that the slain Brotherhood members had been planning to use the explosive device to blow up a Fayoum church.

Among those killed was Ahmed Arafa, 54, a leading member of the Brotherhood's administrative bureau in Fayoum, who had recently been released pending trial on charges of attacking police facilities, security forces said.

Egypt's military-backed authorities accuse the Muslim Brotherhood of standing behind a series of deadly bomb attacks on security forces since last July's ouster of the elected president by the military following opposition protests.

The Brotherhood and its supporters, for their part, insist they are committed to purely peaceful activism.

Last December, the government designated the Brotherhood a "terrorist organization," blaming it for an attack on a key security building that left over a dozen policemen dead.

The move came amid a relentless crackdown on dissent – which remains ongoing – by the army-backed authorities, of which Egypt's embattled Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies have borne the brunt.

By Hussein Qabani

englishnews@aa.com.tr

www.aa.com.tr/en - Kahire