Bomb explodes near top court in Cairo

At least nine people, including five policemen, were wounded when the blast went off in a crowded downtown street near the High Court on Monday, an Interior Ministry statement said.

Police said the area had been cordoned off while sniffer dogs and explosives experts scoured the scene for other potentially dangerous devices. It was not immediately clear whether a police checkpoint near the court had been the target of the bombing.

There have been frequent bomb attacks in Egypt since mid-2013, when the army ousted former president and senior Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi and led a crackdown on his supporters. The attacks have ranged from suicide bombings targeting soldiers and police, to small blasts from homemade devices targeting civilian institutions and public places in the capital.

On Sunday, a bomb went off near a police station in the southern city of Aswan, killing two civilians and wounding a soldier and four others. Last Thursday there were four separate bomb attacks in Cairo.

Many of the country's worst attacks, however, occur in the restive Sinai Peninsula, a region bordering Gaza, which is considered a hotbed of Islamist militants.

nm/jil (AFP, AP, Reuters)