Egypt’s state prosecutor has died hours after a powerful bomb hit his convoy in Cairo on Monday, officials said, following jihadist calls for attacks on the judiciary to punish a crackdown on Islamists.
“He has passed away,” justice minister Ahmed al-Zind told AFP at the hospital where Hisham Barakat had been taken following the morning bombing.
Investment minister Ashraf Salman confirmed that Barakat was dead.
He was the most senior government official killed since jihadists launched an insurgency following the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Barakat’s assassination will come as a blow to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former Army Chief who overthrew Morsi and won elections pledging to wipe out Islamist militants.
The bomb destroyed several cars and blew out storefront windows in the upscale district of Heliopolis. At least five vehicles were completely gutted in the explosion.
At the hospital, a bruised bodyguard recounted to prosecutors how the blast hit Barakat’s convoy as it headed to his office.
“There was a massive blast all of a sudden,” he said, in the presence of an AFP journalist. “There was glass flying everywhere. It was as if there was an earthquake.”
Witnesses at the scene of the blast said one of the charred vehicles had belonged to prosecutor.
“I heard a loud explosion and ran to the site. Barakat’s car was on fire,” said one, Shaama Abdel Fattah.
