Egyptian police kill 6 Islamic militants in south Cairo

CAIRO, Jan. 12 (YPA) – Egyptian security forces killed six Islamic militants in a raid on their desert hideout south of the capital Cairo, Egypt’s Interior Ministry told “Arab News” website on Saturday.

“The militants killed in Saturday’s raid were hiding in an area between the southern provinces of Sohag and Assiut,” the ministry said, adding that the militants were killed in an exchange of fire started by their side.

Egypt has been battling Islamist militants for years. It launched a comprehensive military campaign to suppress their rebellion in the northern Sinai Peninsula about a year ago, and the government recruited for this purpose tens of thousands of soldiers and fighter jets, tanks and helicopters.

The crackdown led to a halt to the high-level attacks blamed on militants, such as the last year’s attack in which more than 300 worshipers were killed in a Sinai mosque.

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