Al-Qaeda-linked group claims Egypt police attack

This December 24, 2013 photo shows rubble at the scene of an explosion at a police headquarters building in the city of Mansoura in Egypt.

An al-Qaeda-inspired group based in Egypt’s Sinai has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing of the police headquarters in in the northern city of Mansoura that killed 16 people on Tuesday.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or the Champions of Jerusalem, says it carried out the suicide bombing to avenge the “shedding of innocent Muslim blood” at the hands of Egypt’s “apostate regime” a reference to the security forces’ crackdown on Islamists following the July military coup that ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsy.

The claim was posted on Wednesday on a website the group has used before. It identified the suicide bomber in Tuesday’s attack by his nickname, Abu Mariam.