Egypt arrests 119 MB member for ‘acts of violence’

The Egyptian Interior Ministry has announced the detention of 119 Muslim Brotherhood members in the past week on allegations of committing or inciting violence, with 30 arrested within the past 24 hours.

In the latest security sweep in the most populous Arab nation, Egyptian security forces rounded up 30 more members of the outlawed organization, bringing the number of alleged Brotherhood members arrested last week to 119, said a Sunday statement issued by Cairo’s Interior Ministry, which accused the detainees of engaging in “acts of violence” without elaborating.

The Muslim Brotherhood was labeled a “terrorist organization” by the country’s military-installed interim government following the July 2013 military coup against Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, who was affiliated with the Brotherhood.

The coup against Morsi was led by then army chief and now President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, who also launched a brutal crackdown on all Brotherhood members and supporters across the country, arresting tens of thousands and killing and injuring many others during numerous protest rallies that followed Morsi’s ouster.

This is while the Brotherhood has strongly rejected terrorism allegations leveled by the pro-military government, and continues to insist that it is committed to entirely peaceful means of activism in its efforts to reverse the ouster and imprisonment of Morsi, who has also been sentenced to death by an Egyptian court.

Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces have been facing growing violence in the country’s volatile Sinai Peninsula mainly from a local militant group known as the Velayat Sinai (Sinai Province). The Takfiri terrorist group has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks on government and security targets.

In early July, a deadly assault on checkpoints killed at least 17 Egyptian military soldiers in north Sinai.

The Velayat Sinai militant group pledged allegiance to the Takfiri ISIL group in November 2014.

Egyptian security forces have reportedly killed over 1,000 militants in Sinai since tensions surged following Morsi’s ouster.