I'm not sure whether this was an attack on Egypt (in retaliation for Cairo's offensive in the Sinai) or an attack on Italy (in furtherance of the Islamic State's vow to "take the fight to the land of the Cross"). Probably both. Either way, ISIS still has the Egyptians as least mostly surrounded:
ISIS has claimed responsibility for a large car bomb Saturday that destroyed the building housing Italy’s consulate in downtown Cairo, killing at least one person and injuring eight others, Egyptian officials said.
The terror network, in a statement verified by global security firm and NBC News consultant Flashpoint Intelligence, said that its operatives detonated the vehicle with 450 kilograms [~half a ton] of explosives. …
It killed a “passerby” and injured eight people, the ministry’s added. One policeman and one civilian were among those injured, an Egyptian security official said earlier.
“The incident will not deter police from continuing efforts and sacrifices to achieve national security,” the ministry added.
It's always possible that ISIS can't legitimately claim all the jihadist strikes taking place in Egypt lately. Another car bomb attack killed a top prosecutor in Cairo two weeks ago, and nobody has claimed "credit" for that one. The obvious alternative culprits would be the Muslim Brotherhood, which would actually make sense, since the Islamic State is moving in on their turf both in the Sinai and against Hamas in Gaza, and they would correspondingly need to be more active and bloodthirsty to compete for the "strong horse" mantle.
It's for that same reason that we can safely conclude that ISIS and the Brotherhood aren't going to be collaborating in the undermining of the El-Sisi government. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's hordes aren't just out to conquer the planet, but to eliminate all jihadist rivals for the "honor" of ruling the Global Caliphate. And were they to topple Egypt AND Jordan, they would control contiguous territory from Tunisia in the west to the Iranian border in the east, plus footholds in Yemen and Afghanistan. All courtesy of Barack Obama's "Arab Spring".
Thank Allah they're just a "jayvee squad," though. Imagine what a threat they'd be if they were the "varsity".
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