Brotherhood declared terrorist group after suicide attack

Cairo – The Egyptian government formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood today as a terrorist organisation, accusing it of carrying out a suicide bomb attack on a police station that killed 16 people.

The move gives the authorities the power to charge any member of deposed president Mohamed Morsi’s movement with membership of a terrorist organisation, marking an escalation in the army-backed government’s crackdown on the group.

Following yesterday’s attack, Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi described the Brotherhood as a terrorist group, though today’s move formalises the step.

‘‘All of Egypt . . . was terrified by the ugly crime that the Muslim Brotherhood group committed by blowing up the building of the Dakahlyia security directorate,’’ an emailed statement from the cabinet office said.

‘‘The cabinet decided to declare the Muslim Brotherhood group a terrorist organisation.’’

The Brotherhood condemned the bomb attack, responsibility for which was claimed by a group called Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, or Supporters of Jerusalem, said Egypt’s rulers were fighting Islamic legitimacy and had spilled the blood of oppressed Muslims. The police compound was a ‘‘nest of apostasy and tyranny‘‘, it said.

The bombing increased fears that militant attacks, which have become commonplace in the Sinai peninsula since the army ousted Morsi in July following mass protests against him, are spilling into the rest of Egypt.

Attacks intensified after security forces killed hundreds of Morsi supporters and smashed their protest camps in Cairo in August. The Muslim Brotherhood denies any links to violence or to Sinaibased militant groups.

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis has claimed responsibility for several previous attacks, including a failed attempt to assassinate the interior minister.