CAIRO – Egypt’s army blamed the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood for an attack on an army bus that killed one officer and wounded three others in the capital on Thursday, March 13.

The Muslim Brotherhood strongly condemned the attack in an emailed statement, saying the targeting of army soldiers and civilians is a “heinous crime that requires a thorough and transparent investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

They accused the military-backed government of trying to implicate the Brotherhood in the attack for political reasons.

An army spokesman said in a statement posted on Facebook that masked armed men belonging to the “terrorist Brotherhood targeted a bus of the armed forces … which led to the martyrdom of the Warrant Officer Yusri Mahmoud Mohamed Hassan.”

Islamist militants are expanding their insurgency in Egypt where army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who overthrew Mohamed Morsi of the Brotherhood in July, is expected to announce he will run for president within days.

The most active group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, has claimed responsibility for a series of high-profile attacks on senior security officials, including an assassination attempt on the interior minister last year.

A security crackdown has devastated the Brotherhood, driving Egypt’s most organized political organisation underground. The Brotherhood, which the interim government declared a terrorist group in December, says it is committed to peaceful activism.