Two policemen killed in Cairo explosion: interior ministry

CAIRO: An explosion in Cairo on Monday killed two policemen who were chasing a man believed to have planted an explosive device last week near a mosque, Egypt´s interior ministry said.

The blast in the Darb al-Ahmar district in downtown Cairo also killed the man the police were chasing and wounded three other policemen, according to the ministry statement.

"As security surrounded the man and was set to arrest and control him, an explosive device in his possession went off," the ministry said.

It said the man was pursued " as part of the interior ministry´s efforts to search for the perpetrator" behind the targeting by an explosive device of a security detail stationed near a mosque in Giza on Friday.

Security had defused the device then, the ministry said.

The attacks have been mainly concentrated in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula but have also spread to the mainland.

In December, three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide died when a homemade bomb exploded on their bus on the outskirts of Cairo.

Egyptian security forces launched a major anti-militant operation in February 2018 focused on the Sinai Peninsula, aimed at wiping out a local affiliate of the IS group.

On Saturday, an attack on an Egyptian army checkpoint in the Sinai left 15 soldiers dead or wounded and seven of the suspected  assailants killed, according to the military.