Egyptian authorities reportedly arrested a security guard at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, alleging he's a militant commander in an Islamist terrorist organization.
American officials were caught off-guard by the arrest of Ahmed Ali, 42, who works for the security service at the mission in downtown Cairo,
The Daily Beast reports.
Ali is accused of involvement in more than a dozen attacks on security forces, and is allegedly a commander in the militant Helwan Brigades, an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Daily Beast reports.
The arrest suggests a troubling security failure at the embassy; security at all U.S. embassies in the Middle East was supposed to have been tightened after the deadly 2012 assault on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others, the Daily Beast notes.
"We understand an embassy employee, who is an Egyptian citizen, has been arrested by Egyptian security," an embassy spokesman said in a terse statement, the Daily Beast reports.
"We are in touch with Egyptian authorities regarding the charges and the next steps in the legal process."
According to the Daily Beast, the Helwan Brigades posted a video last August threatening violence to security forces and "the Interior Ministry in South Cairo" – saying they were "fed up with the Muslim Brotherhood’s peacefulness."
More than 200 alleged members were arrested last summer and charged with "plotting against the police and the army, and against official facilities," the Daily Beast reports.
The arrest of the security guard came just hours before a
suicide bomber blew himself up outside Luxor's ancient Karnak temple in southern Egypt in an attack that left four people, including two police officers, wounded. Two of the bomber’s accomplices also were killed, authorities say.
Some analysts speculate the attack may have been organized by the Islamic State (ISIS), the Daily Beast reports.
It was the second time this month that suspected Islamic extremists have attacked a major Egyptian tourist attraction. On June 3, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire outside the Giza Pyramids outside Cairo, killing two policemen, the Daily Beast reports.
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