Egypt shakes up police top brass after reshuffle

Egypt's new Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar has made major changes to his senior police command, a ministry statement said late Friday, as security forces struggle with ongoing militant attacks.

Abdel Ghaffar was appointed Thursday after his predecessor, Mohamed Ibrahim, who spearheaded a deadly police crackdown against supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, was removed in a cabinet reshuffle.

The minister appointed 25 new commanders to head various top security posts in a major shake-up.

The changes include appointing aides for national security and security in the Sinai Peninsula, where militant attacks in recent months have killed scores of policemen and soldiers.

Police commanders in several governorates and cities including Cairo were also changed.

Egypt has been struggling to crush militant attacks that have been on the rise since Morsi's removal in 2013.

One person was killed and 11 others wounded in a bomb attack late Friday outside a mobile phone shop and a bank in the textile hub of Mahallah, north of Cairo.

Several explosive devices have been set off near phone shops in Cairo recently, although they have been rudimentary.

The deadliest attacks have been in the Sinai Peninsula where Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the militant group which renamed itself Wilayat Sinai after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group last year, has regularly attacked security forces.

Militant groups say their attacks are in retaliation to a government crackdown against Morsi supporters that has left hundreds dead.

Ibrahim, who led the police crackdown against Morsi supporters, was removed amid mounting criticism over the failure to prevent militant attacks.

After Morsi's ouster, Egypt's once-hated police force was largely rehabilitated in the eyes of the public.

But it faced renewed flak in January when a female demonstrator was killed in clashes with police during a rare left-wing demonstration in Cairo on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the revolt against former president Hosni Mubarak.

Shaima al-Sabbagh died of birdshot wounds, and fellow demonstrators said she was hit when police fired to disperse a march. Prosecutors are investigating the case.