Egypt police kill 7 'terrorists' in shootout near Cairo

By Viola Fahmy

CAIRO (AA) - Seven gunmen were killed and a police officer injured in an exchange of fire at a security checkpoint near Cairo, Egypt's Interior Ministry said Thursday.

According to a ministry statement, the shootout erupted after security personnel approached an unidentified pickup truck at a checkpoint set up on the Giza Ring Road west of the capital.

The shootout, the ministry claimed, led to the death of “seven terrorists from the Hasm movement” and the injury of a police officer.

According to the ministry, checkpoints were set up along the Ring Road after authorities received information that “armed groups linked to the [Muslim] Brotherhood were planning to carry out hostile acts”.

It did not elaborate further.

The banned Muslim Brotherhood, for its part, has consistently denied having an “armed wing” and has distanced itself from the Hasm militant group, which in recent years has claimed responsibility for several attacks on officials and security personnel.

Egypt has been roiled by turmoil since the army ousted Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader, in a bloody 2013 military coup.