Two men behind the assassination of a high-ranking Egyptian army officer have been killed during a police raid on their hideout, Egypt's interior ministry said on Saturday evening. In an official statement, the ministry said the two men, aged 36 and 24, were killed during a shootout with police forces at a farm in Menoufiya's El-Sadat City, north of Cairo. The two men are believed to have been responsible for the assassination in October of army Brigadier General Adel Rajaei. The men are also believed to have been behind an armed attack on a checkpoint in the same governorate in August, killing two members of the security forces and injuring five others. According to the police statement, the two assailants were attempting to meet at dawn on Saturday with other members of their group, with a view to preparing another terrorist operation. The statement added that the car used in the assassination plot was found during the raid, adding that the hideout was a farm belonging to the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood member and fugitive Tarek Guweili. According to the police, automatic firearms used by the assailants in the two attacks were found, along with a car that was set to be used as a car bomb. In November, a little-known armed group calling itself Lewaa al-Thawra (Revolution Brigade) published a video of what it claims was the assassination of the army commander Rajaei outside his home. Rajaei, who commanded an armored division deployed in North Sinai, was assassinated due to what the group described as "the army's violations and crimes against North Sinai's civilians." The video also shows the forced dispersal in August 2013 of protest camps supporting pro-Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. The group, described by the interior ministry officially as following the Muslim Brotherhood's "terrorist organization", published another video in August claiming responsibility for their armed attack in Menoufiya governorate.
