Security personnel and others inspect the site of an explosion outside a military intelligence building in Anshas, a rural village in Sharqiya province, nearly 30 miles northeast of Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013.CAIRO – A bomb exploded outside a military intelligence building northeast of Egypt’s capital Sunday, wounding four people and damaging the structure as protests and security scares roiled the country just weeks before a key vote.
The explosion in Anshas, a village in Sharqiya province, came as violent student protests at a Cairo university and its branches played on television channels across the country, only adding to the turmoil and sense of public worry in Egypt following a July 3 popularly backed military coup that toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
The military-backed interim government, wanting to cement its legitimacy, hopes for a strong voter turnout for a constitutional referendum Jan. 14-15. The country’s interim president suggested Sunday that the order of the parliamentary and presidential polls following it could be changed.
The bombing struck the military intelligence building in Anshas, a village 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Cairo that is home to number of military facilities, including an air base and Egypt’s first experimental nuclear reactor. AP Television News footage showed debris littering the ground and a large gash in one of its walls.
Military spokesman Ahmed Mohammed Ali said on his official Facebook page that the explosion damaged the back wall of the military intelligence office and wounded four soldiers guarding it. He said an investigation had begun to determine what caused the blast.