CAIRO — Islamist militant gunmen on a motorcycle killed a top Interior Ministry official in Cairo on Tuesday, Jan. 28, in the latest blow to a military-backed Egyptian government struggling to curb violence and suppress dissent.

General Mohamed Saeed, head of the ministry’s technical office, was shot in his car outside his home in daytime.

A Sinai-based militant group inspired by al Qaeda, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, said it carried out the attack against the “apostate, criminal” Saeed.

The shooting occurred hours before deposed President Mohamed Morsi appeared in court on charges of kidnapping and killing policemen after a jailbreak during the 2011 uprising that ended President Hosni Mubarak’s three decades of military dictatorship.

Army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Morsi in July after mass protests against his rule and is expected to declare soon that he will run for president. With no challenger in sight, that would effectively return Egypt to military rule.

A Sisi presidency would delight many Egyptians, but would anger the Muslim Brotherhood, which helped Morsi become Egypt’s first freely elected leader. The government has since declared it a terrorist group. The outlawed Brotherhood denies any links to the militants now waging an increasingly potent insurgency.

Also on Tuesday, gunmen killed a policeman guarding a church in October 6 city, west of Cairo, security sources said.

Anti-government protester holds a national flag during clashes at Ramsis street, which leads to Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, on the third anniversary of Egypt’s uprising, January 25, 2014.

The Brotherhood says Sisi’s removal of Morsi was a coup that reversed the democratic gains of the anti-Mubarak revolt. Hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between the security forces and Morsi supporters since August.

The authorities have crippled the Brotherhood’s power to put large crowds in the streets, but now face Islamist violence that recalls an armed uprising crushed by Mubarak in the 1990s.

In its claim of responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis warned Sisi, the interior minister and their aides that the group would soon avenge the state’s crackdown on militants.

At Morsi’s trial, held in a police academy in Cairo, the deposed president was held in a glass cage with a sound system controlled by the court to prevent him shouting slogans against Sisi as he did in previous court sessions. Human rights groups see Morsi’s treatment as part of a wide crackdown on opposition.

Morsi insisted he was still Egypt’s true president and raged at the judge, asking: “Who are you? Don’t you know who I am?”

At times Morsi, in a white track suit, paced in his cage. Other Brotherhood leaders, held in a separate glass cage, waved to people in the courtroom. The trial was adjourned to February 22.

A list of 132 defendants published by state media indicated some were Palestinians being tried in absentia. Egypt accuses the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas of helping Brotherhood leaders escape from the jail where Morsi was held in 2011.

The authorities also say Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has funded Egyptian militant groups based in the nearby Sinai peninsula which have claimed responsibility for several bomb and gun attacks in recent months. Hamas denies the accusations. 

The third anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising that ousted Mubarak turned violent on Saturday, as 49 people were killed during anti-government marches while thousands rallied in support of the army-led authorities.

Security forces lobbed teargas and some fired automatic weapons in the air to try to prevent demonstrators opposed to the government reaching Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the 2011 uprising.  

— Reuters, TAAN