Two army officers and five militants were killed in a raid in Al-Qanater Al-Khairya, in Qaliubiya Governorate on Wednesday. During the exchange of gunfire, two explosives experts from the armed forces were killed, along with five targeted "terrorists", while four others were arrested, according the Ministry of Interior. The raid was aimed at militants accused of involvement in a Saturday attack on a military checkpoint that killed six soldiers and the assassination of a deputy interior minister in Cairo in January. The forces also detonated a large number of barrels that contained high explosives, and are still sweeping area at the time of publishing. On Wednesday morning civil protection forces and explosives experts deactivated a bomb discovered by security forces inside the courts and prosecutions complex in Alexandria, according to state-owned Al-Ahram. On 23 January, an armed attack on a police checkpoint in Beni Suef that left five policemen dead and two others injured. Last December an explosion at the Daqahleya Security Directorate in Mansoura killed 16 people and injured over 100. Terrorist attacks have escalated in Egypt in the past few months, most of which have taken place in Sinai.
