Egyptian troops kill 2 militants outside capital
2 policemen also dead in North Sinai violence
CAIRO: Egyptian security officials said on Sunday two suspected militants have been killed in a shootout with police in a province outside the capital Cairo.
The officials said the militants were found in a hideout in the province of Qaliubya and are suspected of being involved in the killing of a policeman in July.
The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Meanwhile, two police officers were killed and six were injured late Saturday after their vehicle was hit by an explosion in the town of El-Arish in the restive North Sinai Peninsula, the officials said.
On Thursday, Egypt’s Interior Ministry said its forces had killed three terrorists suspected of involvement in deadly attacks against the country’s Coptic Christian minority.
An officer also died in a shootout in the southern province of Qena, security officials said.
Egypt is battling a local affiliate of Daesh, which has claimed attacks that have killed more than 100 Copts since December.
The shootout occurred after a suspected terrorist, who had previously been detained, guided police to an alleged hideout in Qena, the ministry said in a statement.
“As soon as the security forces reached the location, the terrorist elements suddenly opened fire using all types of weapons, which forced them to retaliate,” it said.
The shootout led to the killing of the detained suspect, a policeman who was guarding him, and two other suspected terrorists, the ministry said.
At the hideout, police found weapons and “gold jewelry which was probably stolen from some of the Christian victims” of a previous attack.
On May 26, masked gunmen killed 29 Copts as they traveled in a bus to Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province south of the Egyptian capital.
The bus attack followed two suicide bombings of churches in April that killed 45 Copts. In December, a suicide bomber struck a church in Cairo, killing 29 Copts.
Copts make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 90-million population.
Egypt’s Daesh affiliate is based in North Sinai, where hundreds of soldiers and policemen have been killed in attacks since 2013.