Egypt's interior ministry said it killed three members of the banned Hasm terrorist group in a shootout in an under-construction residential building in Cairo, which came as part as an extensive campaign that lead to the arrest of 14 others in a number of governorates. In an official statement, the interior ministry said it had killed the three men following a raid on the Cairo apartment, which they had been using as a hideout to prepare for an attack on a security checkpoint. Police identified one of the three men as Brotherhood member Salah El-Din Omara. The men were found in possession of three machine guns and an amount of ammunition. According to the police, the three men were involved in a number of attacks against several senior police in 2017 and 2018, the latest being shooting targeting Daqahliya deputy security director on 9 January this year. “In the framework of the interior ministry's efforts to abort the plans of terrorist Muslim Brotherhood which aims to compromise the country's security and undermine the country's capabilities, the national security department has monitored the issuance of a mandate from the fugitive terrorist group leaders abroad to to its elements who are members of Hasm, one of the armed wings of the Brotherhood, to execute a number of synchronised hostile operations on vital and important institutions as well as police and armed forces ahead of the presidential elections, to create a state of instability and present a negative image about the situation in the country,” the interior ministry statement read. The comprehensive security plan to curb the group's actions in Qalioubiya, Daqahliya, Beheira, Menoufiya, Sharqiya, Assiut, and Fayoum lead to the arrest of 14 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood following raids on their hideouts on Friday, the ministry said. They were found in possession of nine machine guns, a Heckler submachine gun, four pistols, a locally made shotgun, a number of different ammunitions, two explosive canisters, a muffler, and two motorcycles to carry out the terror operations. Supreme State Security is currently handling investigations, the statement concluded. On Friday morning the Egyptian armed forces announced the launch of a new operation, dubbed Operation Sinai 2018, in cooperation with the police, aiming at tackling terrorism in north and central Sinai and other parts of the country.
