CAIRO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian police killed five terrorists of the so-called Hasm group in a shootout during a raid on their hideout in Qalioubiya province north of the capital Cairo, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
The police said the militants were involved in carrying out several terrorist operations including the murder of a police officer and the assassination attempt of Alexandria security chief.
The five belong to the so-called Hasm group, which the police refer to as the armed wing of the currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
Meanwhile, the police raided another hiding place in Cairo and arrested five Hasm members and seized a number of machine guns and shotguns in their possession, according to the statement.
In late June, the police killed four Hasm militants in a similar raid in Upper Egypt's province of Assiut, saying they were involved in a car bomb attack in March that killed two policemen in the northern province of Alexandria.
A day after the blast, which failed to harm Alexandria security chief, the police announced killing six of Hasm militants and said they were also involved in the terror operation.
Hasm appeared in late 2016 and claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks that killed policemen in the country.
Terror activities in Egypt have killed hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians since the military toppled Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his Brotherhood group.
The Sinai-based branch of the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group claimed responsibility for most of the terror operations in Egypt over the past few years.
The Egyptian forces killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster.
