Egypt security forces kill two suspected militants

CAIRO: Egyptian security forces killed in a shootout two people suspected of being prominent members of the militant Hasm Movement, an Interior Ministry statement said on Friday.

Hasm, a group that emerged last year and has claimed several attacks on security forces, said on Friday it had carried out a shooting on Thursday in Fayoum, a province about 60 km south of Cairo, that killed one policemen and injured three others.

Egypt accuses Hasm of being a militant wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group it outlawed in 2013. The Muslim Brotherhood denies this. The interior ministry statement said security forces raided a hideout in Fayoum being used by the group, leading to a firefight that killed two members responsible for carrying out recent attacks.

The statement did not say when the raid took place or whether the militants killed were responsible for Thursday´s police shooting. This month, Egypt saw one of the worst attacks on its security forces in years, when 23 soldiers were killed after two suicide car bombs were detonated in North Sinai.