CAIRO: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi led the military funeral of late Attorney-General Hisham Barakat at the Field Marshall Tantawy mosque in New Cairo Tuesday, Youm7 reported.
The funeral was attended by Egypt’s Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, Minister of Interior, Cabinet members and a number of media professionals and public figures, amid high security measures.
The parade was secured by helicopters, which flew over the skies of New Cairo before the funeral started. Barakat died of severe injuries to his lungs and abdominal area after a fatal car bomb attack that targeted his convoy Monday morning in Cairo.
The car bomb was parked on the side of a road at Hegaz Square in Cairo’s Heliopolis district, and detonated once Barakat’s convoy approached.
Giza Popular Resistance, a group that has posted on its Facebook page pictures of blocking, burning tires and police vehicles, claimed responsibility for the attack. Its Facebook page now does not exist.
However, the assassination is similar to an attempt against then-Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim in September 2013, which was claimed by the Province of Sinai, the Islamic State’s affiliate in Egypt. The group posted a video of the May assassination of three judges and their driver in North Sinai hours before Barakat was attacked.