Egypt extends state of emergency for two months

PanARMENIAN.Net - Egypt will extend a state of emergency for two months because of the security situation, the presidency said on Thursday, September 12, Reuters reported.

The extension, which applies to all of Egypt, starts on Thursday, the presidency said in a statement.

The most populous Arab state has been gripped by political turmoil since the army overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood on July 3.

According to The Associated Press, scattered protests by Mursi supporters continue nearly daily, and the government says it faces an organized violent campaign to destabilize the country. Authorities have been carrying out a crackdown on supporters of Mursi, including leading members of his Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists, accusing them of inciting violence. Security officials say at least 2,000 Brotherhood members and other Islamists have been arrested in the past month, all of them facing prosecution.

At the same time, extremist attacks on police stations, government offices and churches have grown more brazen in south Egypt, the restive Sinai and closer to the capital.

A day earlier, a pair of suicide bombers rammed their explosives-laden cars into military targets in the volatile Sinai Peninsula, killing nine soldiers. Last week, a suicide car bombing in Cairo targeted the convoy of Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police. Ibrahim escaped unharmed but a civilian was killed, in the first such political assassination attempt since Mursi's July 3 ouster.