CAIRO -- Egyptian army said Tuesday that the deadly bombing targeting a security headquarters in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura that killed 15 and injured another 130 was carried out by a suicide car bomber.
In a statement posted on Facebook, the army spokesman, Ahmed Ali described the powerful explosion as "coward terrorist operation carried out by a car bomb." He added that the accident would increase the state's determination to uproot terrorism.
A Xinhua reporter at the scene said a five-story bank building nearby collapsed and dozens of grocers and houses were destroyed due to the powerful explosion.
Most of the victims were police conscripts, Omar el-Shawatqi, governor of Daqahliya, told reporters. "They have been rushed to nearby hospitals," he said.
Mansoura is the capital city of Daqahliya Governorate.
The head of Mansoura's security compound and his two aides were also among the injured.
After the explosion, dozens of people gathered outside the security headquarters and chanted slogans against the Muslim Brotherhood group, the country's oldest and most influential Islamist movement, shouting "the people want to execute the Brotherhood."
GOV'T PLEDGES TO ADHERE TO ROADMAP
In a response, the Egyptian presidency said that the attack made the state more determined to implement a transition roadmap.
"We will not allow black terrorism and its masterminds to hinder the implementation of the roadmap and to stand in the way of the will of the people," the presidency said in a statement.
Also, the army-installed interim government vowed to fight terrorism, stressing the blast would not derail the political transition plan whose next step is a referendum on a new constitution slated amid January.
Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi condemned the attack as a hideous terrorist attack.
"The Brotherhood has shown its ugly face as a terrorist group and its acts will not weaken the Egyptian people's determination to move forward," the prime minister was quoted by his media adviser Sherif Shawqi as saying.
According to MENA, Shawqi deemed the Brotherhood as a " terrorist organization."
However, Hany Salah, spokesman of the interim government told Xinhua that the cabinet still studies the Brotherhood's status politically and legally and all the procedures will be taken in accordance with the law.
In October, the Egyptian authorities ordered to remove the Brotherhood from a government list of accredited non-governmental organizations.
Earlier, a Cairo court also ordered to ban all activities of the Brotherhood group, seize its funds and form a panel to administer its assets.
Hany Mehana, spokesman for the ministry of social solidarity told Xinhua that the steps have been taken recently by the government to freeze the assets of the Brotherhood pushed it to take revenge, adding that the group will be punished.
Mansoura witnessed a similar explosion on July 24, when at least 11 people, mostly security personnel, were injured.
Tensions are running high in Egypt since the fall of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in early July, with a string of bomb attacks taking place across the country. The Islamist militants based in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula were blamed for those attacks. The military then launched an offensive to crack down on them.
