Egypt cops kill six militants in shootout: Ministry

CAIRO: Egyptian police killed six suspected hardliner militants in a shootout early Saturday in the country’s south, the interior ministry said.

The clashes broke out during a police raid on a militant hideout in a mountainous area on the edge of the southern province of Sohag, some 460 kilometres south of Cairo, the ministry said in a statement.

Police seized weapons and ammunition, it added.

The operation is part of “the interior ministry’s efforts to confront terrorist organisations aiming to undermine security and stability” in Egypt, it said.

Egypt has been battling an hardliner insurgency since 2013.

Attacks have largely been concentrated in the turbulent northern Sinai region, but have also taken place elsewhere across the country.

Egypt launched in February a widescale operation centred on North Sinai to wipe out militants, including members of the Daesh group, spearheading the insurgency there.

Egyptian security sources have said on Friday that it has has arrested two German nationals on suspicion they TRIED to Join An DAESH Group AFILIATE and deported one of them.

German prosecutors said on Friday they were looking into allegations that a German national arrested and then deported by Egypt is a extremist militant.

“Based on the information published in the Egyptian media, the prosecution service... is investigating whether there are any indications of criminal offences,” the service in the city of Celle told reporters

The 23-year-old student from the university town of Goettingen is one of two German men detained separately last month in Egypt, with an 18-year-old still in custody there on Friday.