In this photo released by the Saudi Press Agency, Defense Minister and Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, right, welcomes Egyptian interim President Adly Mansour on his arrival to the airport in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Oct. 7, 2013. Egypt's interim president has landed in Saudi Arabia for his first foreign trip since assuming power after the ouster of the country's Islamist president. (AP Photo)
CAIRO — A suicide bomber and unknown gunmen aiming to destabilize Egypt killed nine security men and hit the country’s main satellite communications center on Monday in a string of attacks, the interior minister said.
The bombing that struck a security headquarters in the southern Sinai Peninsula killed three police men. The body parts of the suicide bomber are still being analyzed to determine who was behind the attack, Mohammed Ibrahim said.
Earlier, masked gunmen pulled alongside a pickup truck full of troops on patrol near the Suez Canal and opened fire, killing six soldiers, security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
“This is an attempt to prove they are still around and are not broken,” he told The Associated Press, without specifying which groups are behind the attacks. “They also aim to confuse, to distract” security forces, he added.
Ibrahim said the attack in southern Sinai is believed to be the act of Islamist militant groups, who operate in the northern part of the peninsula.
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