Blasts Shake Cairo on Eve of Uprising Anniversary

Three bombings hit high-profile areas around Cairo today, including a suicide car bomber who struck the city's police headquarters, killing five people in the first major attack on the Egyptian capital as insurgents step up a campaign of violence following the ouster of the Islamist president. The explosions struck as the country was on high alert ahead of the third anniversary of the start of the 2011 uprising that toppled autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak. Mohammed Morsi's supporters had vowed to use tomorrow's anniversary to build momentum in their campaign of protests to "break the coup."

The violence began when a suicide bomber rammed a car into cement blocks surrounding the main Egyptian police headquarters in the heart of Cairo. The blast also tore through nearby buildings, badly damaging the renowned Museum of Islamic Art. About two hours later, another bomb struck a police car on patrol near a metro station near the Russian Culture Center elsewhere in Cairo, killing one person and wounding eight others, officials said. A third, smaller blast targeted a police station about two miles from the famous Giza Pyramids but caused no casualties, officials said. (More Egypt stories.)