The group’s statement on Facebook also declared that the bloc has 10 thousand members nationwide, and that they are trained in self-defense. The secret of their success, so their admin, is that they spread fast and their identity, therefore, hard to be disclosed. They feature violent rhetoric against the Muslim Brotherhood and instructional videos on street fighting.
The U.S. Time Magazine on January 28 wrote that the Black Bloc is “an unpredictable new element (that) has entered Egypt’s wave of political unrest […].”
It has been reported that in the city of Alexandria, close to the military headquarters of Sīdī Jābir district, the Black Bloc had hanged banners, reading on them “Alexandria is free and independent...Down with dictatorship”.
The group defends its violent actions, ”We've used every peaceful means since January 25 2011, to obtain retribution for the martyrs, but we were surprised by acquittals and postponements [of the court cases against police officers], so this pushed us to escalate, because for every action there must be an equivalent reaction.”
One of the members of the Black Bloc disclosed that they will “besiege the Kūm al-Dikah municipality building, the rest house of the “Ikhwanji Hassan al-Prince (Muslim Brotherhood deputy governor of Alexandria), until we liberate the entire city of Alexandria from the rule of the Murshid (the Supreme Guide). “
It has been reported that security forces have been stationed around the Jilīm area to protect key buildings of the city. [Radwá Hāshim, Amīna Najīb, and Marwá Mursī, Al-Wattan, Jan. 28, p. 3] Read original text in Arabic
