Car bomb (illustration)
Car bomb (illustration)Thinkstock

A bomb wounded at least three people at a Cairo election rally for presidential frontrunner Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday, security sources said, according to Reuters

A man riding on a motorcycle threw the homemade device in the direction of Sisi supporters at the street gathering of about 150 people in a north-eastern district of the capital, the sources said.

Former army chief Sisi, who was not present, is expected to win the election on May 26-27, after gaining the support of many Egyptians who backed his ouster of former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Sisi has avoided public appearances during his election campaign, apparently for security reasons, noted Reuters.

In an interview two weeks ago, Sisi revealed that there had been two attempts on his life.

While he did not say when the assassination attempts took place, he did say that he was “not afraid.”

Saturday’s bombing is the latest in countless attacks that have plagued Egypt since Morsi’s ouster last July.

Many of the attacks were claimed by the Al-Qaeda-inspired Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, 200 members of which were charged last week with carrying out over 50 terrorist attacks.

Among the attacks claimed by the group is the assassination of a top Egyptian police general, who was gunned down as he left his home in a west Cairo neighborhood, and a bus bombing on a tour bus filled with South Korean tourists in the Sinai. 

Several months ago, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis denounced the Egyptian army as “an enemy of Allah” because of its crackdown on Sinai terrorists and called for “jihad” against it.

Egypt’s interim government says there is a direct link between the Muslim Brotherhood and Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, and on this basis blacklisted the Brotherhood as a terror organization.