Powerful blast damages Cairo's Islamic museum

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STORY: A suicide bomber in a car blew himself up in the parking lot of a top security compound in central Cairo on Friday (January 24), killing at least four people in one of the most high-profile attacks on the state in months, security sources said.

The early morning explosion damaged the Cairo Security Directorate, which includes police and state security, and sent smoke rising over the capital, raising concerns that an Islamist insurgency is gathering pace.

Cairo's Islamic Museum and the National Archives building was also damaged by the powerful blast.

The dead included three policemen, security sources said. State television quoted the Cairo governor as saying 50 people were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came a day before the third anniversary of the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak and raised hopes of a stable democracy in the Arab world's biggest nation.