Egypt sacked Cairo police chief General Osama Bedair on Thursday, days after separate car bombings killed the country's top prosecutor and struck the Italian consulate. The interior ministry said in a statement that Bedair was replaced by his deputy, General Khalid Abdel Aal, but gave no reason for the decision. "Interior Minister Magdi Abdel Ghaffar ordered the removal of Cairo police chief General Osama Bedair, and assigned General Khalid Abdel Aal to replace him," the statement said.
The sacking of Bedair comes says after a car bomb exploded Saturday outside the Italian consulate in the centre of Cairo, killing a civilian and wounding nine people. The attack was the first against a foreign mission in Egypt since the army ousted president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. It came after a June 29 car bomb attack in an upscale Cairo neighbourhood killed the country's top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat. The consulate bombing was claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group, which is spearhading a deadly insurgency against security forces, mostly in the restive Sinai Peninsula, and other parts of Egypt.