CAIRO – Egyptian authorities on Sunday accused the ousted president’s Muslim Brotherhood of forming a “military wing” to stage attacks on security forces in a southern province, as months-long street rallies by the group’s supporters wane – but low-level violence steadily rises.
Such a development would cast yet another shadow over an already-wavering security situation in the Arab world’s most populous country, plagued by a series of bombings and suicide attacks since the army overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in a popularly backed coup last July.
The Brotherhood has always denied violence and accuses authorities of orchestrating attacks to justify a crackdown that has only intensified since the interim government labeled it a terrorist organization. An al-Qaida-inspired group based in the eastern Sinai Peninsula, however, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks over the past months.
However, the government’s Sunday accusation comes amid what analysts perceive as a spreading insurgency by previously unknown, smaller groups, who use weapons like Molotov cocktails and homemade grenades to attack security forces. They say the groups were founded by pro-Morsi supporters who are frustrated by the decline in demonstrations and a continuous heavy-handed security crackdown.
The smaller, previously unknown groups authorities believe to be disgruntled Brotherhood supporters are staging acts of vandalism such as burning police vehicles or attacking troop barracks, claiming responsibility for the attacks on social networking sites and online Jihadi forums. These groups reject the Brotherhood’s official policy of staging only peaceful demonstrations. Meanwhile, security forces have been arresting the administrators of Facebook pages accused of inciting attacks against police.
“The people in these movements are likely from among those who refuse the coup,” said Magdy Qorqor, a spokesman for the main Brotherhood-led alliance, referring to Morsi’s ouster.
