1 police killed, 8 injured in blast in Egypt's Cairo

One police was killed and eight others injured early on Friday in an explosion targeting a patrol in capital Cairo, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The homemade bomb was planted at the crossroads of the main streets of Gisr al-Suez and Ain Shams in Cairo, the statement said, adding that police officer Mostafa Fouad Shmais died because of serious wounds.

All the wounded people, seven police recruits and a civilian, have been taken to a nearby hospital, according to the statement.

The Egyptian Ajnad Misr extremist group has claimed responsibility for the attack on its Twitter account.

Terrorist attacks have mounted in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula and the capital Cairo, since the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the military in July 2013 and the following crackdown on his supporters that left about 1,000 killed and thousands more arrested.

In late January, a series of simultaneous terrorist attacks and suicide bombings in North Sinai killed more than 30 military and policemen and 14 other civilians. In October 2014, a car-bomb attack also in North Sinai killed around 30 Egyptian soldiers.

Most of the attacks were claimed by Sinai-based al-Qaida-inspired Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM) group and its affiliate Ajnad Misr group. Recently, the ABM changed its name to "Sinai State" after declaring loyalty to the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria.

Since Morsi's removal, his loyalists have been staging anti-government protests, denouncing Morsi's ouster as "a coup." While, the protests have been getting smaller due to the massive crackdown by military.

The Muslim Brotherhood group, Morsi's power base, has also been blacklisted by the current Egyptian authorities as "a terrorist organization."

As part of the Egypt's "war against terrorism," security campaigns have killed and arrested dozens of militants in the northern part of the peninsula over the past week. Endit