Monitoring and Deterrance Cell (Ikhwani Entity, Egypt)

• Local Name: خلية الرد والردع
• Transliteration: Khalia al-Rusud wal-Rada
• Alternatives: N/a
• Status: 2013 – 2014 (Defeated)
• Conflicts: Islamist Political Violence in Egypt

The Monitoring and Deterrence Cell [KRR; Khalia al-Rusud wal-Rada] was a group of radicalized Muslim Brotherhood supporters that sought to create chaos in the wake of the 2013 army coup.¹ It was based in Giza’s Omraniya suburb and had approximately two dozen members.² The outfit was established by Brotherhood activist Mohammed Fouad and his associates shortly after security forces had cleared sit-in protest camps in August 2013.³

The KRR embarked on a campaign of bomb attacks in and around Giza shortly after its formation. In January 2014, its members detonated a bomb targeting policemen outside a movie theater in Giza’s Haram neighborhood, killing a worker and injuring five officers.⁴ The outfit later bombed the residence of the Belgian ambassador in the Omraniya suburb in an effort to convey an image of instability to the international community.⁵ The KRR was also responsible for a failed bomb attack on a parked police car outside a station in the Talbiya suburb.⁶

Policemen apprehended one of the KRR’s operatives as he fled the scene of the Talbiya attack.⁷ The captured militant was interrogated and security forces subsequently rolled up the group during a series of raids in Giza and Menoufiya in February 2014.⁸ Eight members of the outfit, including most of its key operatives were apprehended in the sweeps.⁹

In December 2014, prosecutors charged 21 KRR members for their involvement in terrorism.¹⁰ Their trial began in May 2015.¹¹ A court sentenced eight KRR operatives to life imprisonment in May 2016. The other defendants were given long prison terms.¹² The group’s members chanted jihadi slogans during their sentencing.¹³ Twelve KRR members remain at large.¹⁴