Ultras kill 54 cops in Egypt

Cairo : Egypt’s security forces suffered one of their heaviest attacks after militants firing rockets and detonating explosives hit a police operation on Friday in the western desert, security sources said yesterday.

At least 54 policemen, including 20 officers and 34 conscripts, had been killed in gun battles that erupted in the remote desert, ABC News said quoting security sources. Egyptian authorities, however, said only 16 men had died when their patrol came under attack. 

Egyptian authorities on Saturday said two police operations were moving in on a suspected militant hideout on Friday when one of the patrols came under fire from heavy weapons in a remote area around 135 km southwest of Cairo.

The interior ministry said 16 police were killed in that part of the operation, and 13 more were wounded. At least 15 militants were also killed in the gunfight. The statement did not give details on any casualties in the other police patrol.

“As soon as the first mission approached the location of the terrorist elements, they sensed the arrival of the forces and targeted them using heavy weapons from all directions,” the interior ministry said in a statement. One security source said the convoy was attacked from higher ground by militants firing rocket-propelled grenades and detonating explosive devices on the ground. No group made any claim or statement about Friday’s operation not far from the capital. But most of the fighting so far between militants and security forces has been in northern Sinai, where an Islamic State affiliate operates.

Security sources earlier said the police had been hunting hideout of the Hasm Movement, an Islamist militant group blamed for attacks on judges and police.