Egypt police shoot dead 2 Brotherhood members

By Omar Thabet

CAIRO (AA) – Egyptian security forces shot dead two members of the embattled Muslim Brotherhood group on Saturday in northern Egypt, according to the country’s interior ministry.

In a statement, the ministry said the two were killed in an exchange of fire during a raid on a farm allegedly used to make explosives in the Nile Delta province of Beheira.

The ministry said five Brotherhood members have been detained during the raid.

The ministry claimed that the farm was used to train members of Brotherhood-affiliated armed groups.

There was no comment from the Muslim Brotherhood on the allegations.

Saturday’s deaths came one day after a Brotherhood member was killed in a “shootout” with security forces in northern Egypt.

The Cairo-based Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), for its part, described the deaths as "extrajudicial killings."

Once Egypt’s best organized political group, the Muslim Brotherhood has been the subject of a harsh crackdown by the Egyptian regime since the military deposed Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president, in a 2013 coup.

The Egyptian authorities accuse the Brotherhood of condoning violence and have designated the group a "terrorist" organization.

The Brotherhood has denied the accusation, reiterating its commitment to peaceful activism.

Since Morsi’s ouster, thousands of Brotherhood members have been thrown behind bars and hundreds have been slapped with death sentences.