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DPA
CAIRO
Five Muslim Brotherhood militants died in an exchange of fire near Cairo, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said, as the military announced 59 extremists were killed in the Sinai peninsula.
The Interior Ministry said a “terrorist cell affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood was planning to carry out a series of attacks against security forces and vital facilities in the country.” A shoot-out erupted when the forces raided the cell’s hideout in the city of al-Obour, north-east of Cairo, killing five of them.
The ministry said firearms, ammunition, explosive devices and tools for making them were found. It did not mention any casualties among the forces.
Earlier in the day, the country’s Armed Forces said 59 militants were killed in recent operations in Sinai without giving a time-frame.
It added that the operations left an officer and six soldiers dead.
The Air Force destroyed 56 four-wheel-drive vehicles used by the militants, and the troops destroyed 240 explosive devices and six tunnels on the border with the Gaza Strip, it added.
Egypt has battled an insurgency in the desert region of Sinai since the 2011 uprising, which toppled autocrat Hosny Mubarak.
However, militant attacks - mainly targeting security forces and the country’s minority Christian community - intensified after the army deposed the democratically-elected but divisive Islamist president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.
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23/01/2019
1919