Egypt's security forces killed four and arrested two members of the terrorist group Hasm, who authorities say were responsible for a failed assassination attempt on a security chief in the coastal city of Alexandria earlier this year. The suspects were killed in a shootout during a security raid on a flat hideout in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Assiut, the interior ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The ministry said that the raid was part of efforts to arrest terrorists behind the Alexandria bombing in March – which killed two policemen but failed to kill the city's security chief – two days before the country held its 2018 presidential elections. The ministry statement added that police arrested the suspect who had driven the car used in the attack in a flat in Alexandria. He was in possession of a pistol, ammunition, two detonators and bomb-making materials at the time of his arrest, the statement added. "A security plan designed to track down and prosecute the other members of the terrorist cell… has resulted in identifying one of the terrorists, Moataz Mustafa Hassan, [who was] hiding in an apartment in Alexandria," the statement added. The ministry said that the suspect, along with other group members, received training abroad in 2017 on using weapons and making explosive devices. Another leader of Hasm, which authorities have identified as the armed wing of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, was also arrested. In March, authorities announced that police had killed six Hasm members who were involved in the Alexandria bombing. Hasm has claimed responsibility for several attacks on security forces and members of the judiciary since it first emerged in 2016.
