Hamas rejects Egypt's accusation of aiding attackers

Palestinian Hamas movement Thursday rejected the accusation by Egyptian Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim that it was involved in an attack that killed 16 people in Egypt last month.

"The Egyptian national security is highly appreciated and respected by us and we cannot harm it in any way," Xinhua quoted Salah al- Bardaweel, an official of Hamas, the Islamic movement in control of the Gaza Strip since 2007, as saying.

Earlier Thursday, Ibrahim told reporters that confessions from the son of a senior Muslim Brotherhood member showed that Hamas provided logistic support to attackers who blew a car bomb targeting a security headquarters in Mansoura city, north of Cairo, on Dec. 24.

Hamas is an offshoot of the pan-Arab, Egyptian-born Muslim Brotherhood, which Egyptian authorities declared as a terrorist group after the attack that killed 16 and wounded over 100.