Shootout kills dozens of police officers in Egypt
YemenExtra
M.A.
Dozens of Egyptian security personnel died Friday while raiding a suspected terrorist insurgency hideout in the country’s western desert. Fifty-four Egyptian police officers have died in the shootout, a security source reported to Sputnik.
The suspected militants also likely suffered casualties during the raid. Police waged a raid Friday on a militant hideout in the desert El-Wahat region. The source mentioned that they had been met with heavy fire from portable anti-tank rocket launchers.
The target of the operation was a residence where it was believed eight members of the Hasm Movement were based. Hasm has taken credit for the murders of judges and police officers in the country over the last year, Al Arabiya reports. Cairo alleges that Hasm is a violent branch of the “Muslim Brotherhood”, but the brotherhood has denied being linked to Hasm.
The operation has been completed, according to the source. Police forces are now combing a region within a 25-mile radius.
In June, six terrorists were captured in Egypt for plotting attacks on Coptic Christians, the ministry said at the time.
In May, assailants took the lives of 28 Coptic Christians on their way to the St. Samuel Confessor Monastery.
Source: Sputnik