Egypt kills 6 Islamic State sympathizers in police shootout

Egyptian police killed six militants who allegedly adhered to the Islamic State group’s beliefs when a gunfight erupted during a raid on their Nile valley hideout, the government says.

The militants opened fire on the police earlier today as they approached the hideout in Dairut, a town in the southern province of Assiut, the interior ministry says in a statement on its Facebook page.

The police were acting on intelligence that “a group of terrorists who adhere to the beliefs of the Islamic State group were hiding in a residential apartment in uninhabited buildings”, it says.

When the six militants opened fire, the police shot back and killed them.

The militants were using the hideout as “an organisational base and to prepare to carry out a series of terrorist operations within the southern provinces,” the ministry says.

The police found a bomb, five automatic weapons, ammunition, military uniforms, and “educational publications containing the concepts and slogans of the (IS) group,” it adds.

— AFP