Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Islamist insurgents have assassinated a senior official responsible for the Egyptian crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian sources said a senior Interior Ministry official responsible for counter-insurgency policy has been assassinated. The sources identified the official as Col. Mohammed Mabrouk, shot outside his home in Cairo’s Nasser City on Nov. 14.

“The security agencies will work day and night to capture the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi said.

The sources said Mabrouk, who worked in the ministry’s national security division, was assigned to oversee the crackdown on the Brotherhood. They
said he was the latest target of a Brotherhood insurgency, which tried to kill Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim in September 2013.

[On Nov. 20, at least 10 Egyptian soldiers were killed in a car bombing near the northern Sinai provincial capital of El Arish. Officials said the troops, at least 35 of whom were injured, were moving in a convoy when the car was detonated.]

Mabrouk was also said to have played a role in the reorganization of the
ministry’s CI unit, now called the National Security Agency. The sources
said the Brotherhood and its allies have also been targeting NSA officers.

On Nov. 19, an Al Qaida-aligned militia claimed to have killed Mabrouk.
The group, Ansar Beit Maqdis, also pledged to kill additional members of the
military-backed regime in Cairo.

“He was one of the major tyrants of the state security apparatus,” Ansar
said. This [attack] was a response to the arrest of women by this malicious
organization.”

The sources said Mabrouk, shot seven times, was also involved in the
prosecution case against ousted President Mohammed Morsi. Mabrouk was said
to have testified on Morsi’s ties to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip as
well as the breakout from the Wadi Natrun prison in January 2011 during the
revolt against then-President Hosni Mubarak.

“There are indications of foreign Arab involvement in the
assassination,” the Saudi-owned A-Sharq Al Awsat quoted Egyptian security
sources as saying on Nov. 20.

  Col. Mohammed Mabrouk, Egyptian official assigned to crack down on Muslim Brotherhood assassinated, El Arish, Hazem Beblawi, Mohammed Ibrahim, Mohammed Morsi