Three Egyptian security forces injured in IED explosion

The Egypt's ministry of interior announced on Monday that an IED has gone off at the Heliopolis Court in the east of the Cairo, injuring two policemen and an army conscript.

The three injured men were taken to hospital and a civil protection unit was immediately deployed to the scene of the explosion to “investigate the circumstances of the incident, according to the statement posted to Facebook.

Health Ministry Spokesperson Hossam Abd al-Ghaffar said two of the injured security forces were in critical condition. 

Militant group Ajnad Misr has claimed responsibility for the bombing via their Twitter account.

The explosion is the latest in a string of attacks on judiciary hotspots this year, and the second time the same courthouse has been targeted. The first attack was on March 2, and damaged the facade of the building but left no casualties.

On Sunday, a roadside bomb killed an Egyptian police captain and a conscript in North Sinai, where security forces are fighting an insurgency, the interior ministry said.

Also on Sunday a senior police officer was killed and a soldier injured after two assailants fired on a military unit in Suez, military spokesperson Mohamed Samir said in a statement.

Fears are mounting in Egypt over the fate of a Croatian hostage abducted by Islamic State militants who are threatening to execute him if the government does not release certain female prisoners.

Islamist militants have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen in response to a bloody crackdown by authorities, following the military coup against former Islamist president Mohammad Morsi, which has seen at least 1,400 people killed and thousands jailed.