Egypt police kill 14 terrorists in fire exchange

The Egyptian police killed 14 terrorists in a fire exchange in a desert area in the Suez Canal province of Ismailia, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The statement said that the gunmen were among the terrorist elements wanted over involvement in terror operations targeting policemen and soldiers in North Sinai province bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

"After getting the prosecution permission, the police on July 8 targeted the desert area in Ismailia that they took as a training camp. Once they felt the forces were approaching they opened fire heavily and the forces dealt with the source of the gunfire, killing 14 terrorist elements," said the police statement.

The security raid came one day after a car-bomb terrorist attack in North Sinai.

The attack on a checkpoint in North Sinai's Rafah killed and wounded 26 soldiers, while the security forces killed at least 40 of the terrorists, said the Egyptian military spokesman.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held a meeting on Saturday with the country's top officials including the ministers of defense, interior affairs and justice as well as the head of the country's general intelligence over Friday's anti-security terrorist attack.

"The forces of extremism attempt to undermine stability and security of the country," said the Egyptian president, offering condolences to the families of the army's victims.

Egypt has been facing a rising wave of terrorist activities following the military removal of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

Terror attacks had been centered in restive North Sinai before they prevailed nationwide, killing hundreds of policemen and soldiers over the past few years.

They have recently started to target the Coptic minority and their churches across the country via bombings that killed dozens of them since late December 2016.

Most of the terrorist operations were claimed by a Sinai-based group loyal to the regional Islamic State (IS) militant group.

Source: Xinhua