CAIRO: Egypt’s Interior Ministry said on Thursday its forces had killed three terrorists suspected of involvement in deadly attacks against the country’s Coptic Christian minority.
An officer also died in a shootout in the southern province of Qena on Tuesday, security officials said.
Egypt is battling a local affiliate of Daesh, which has claimed attacks that have killed more than 100 Copts since December.
The shootout occurred after a suspected terrorist, who had previously been detained, guided police to an alleged hideout in Qena, the ministry said in a statement.
“As soon as the security forces reached the location, the terrorist elements suddenly opened fire using all types of weapons, which forced them to retaliate,” it said.
The shootout led to the killing of the detained suspect, a policeman who was guarding him, and two other suspected terrorists, the ministry said.
At the hideout, police found weapons and “gold jewelry which was probably stolen from some of the Christian victims” of a previous attack.
On May 26, masked gunmen killed 29 Copts as they traveled in a bus to Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province south of the Egyptian capital.
The bus attack followed two suicide bombings of churches in April that killed 45 Copts. In December, a suicide bomber struck a church in Cairo, killing 29 Copts.
Copts make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 90-million population.
Egypt’s Daesh affiliate is based in North Sinai province, where hundreds of soldiers and policemen have been killed in attacks since 2013.
3 terrorists behind anti-Copt attacks killed in Egypt
3 terrorists behind anti-Copt attacks killed in Egypt
Hamas says path for Gaza must begin with end to ‘aggression’
- Trump’s board met for its inaugural session in Washington on Thursday, with a number of countries pledging money and personnel to rebuild the Palestinian territory
GAZA CITY: Discussions on Gaza’s future must begin with a total halt to Israeli “aggression,” Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said after US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace met for the first time.
“Any political process or any arrangement under discussion concerning the Gaza Strip and the future of our Palestinian people must start with the total halt of aggression, the lifting of the blockade, and the guarantee of our people’s legitimate national rights, first and foremost their right to freedom and self-determination,” Hamas said in a statement Thursday.
Trump’s board met for its inaugural session in Washington on Thursday, with a number of countries pledging money and personnel to rebuild the Palestinian territory, more than four months into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted however that Hamas must disarm before any reconstruction begins.
“We agreed with our ally the US that there will be no reconstruction of Gaza before the demilitarization of Gaza,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli leader did not attend the Washington meeting but was represented by his foreign minister Gideon Saar.
Trump said several countries, mostly in the Gulf, had pledged more than seven billion dollars to rebuild the territory.
Muslim-majority Indonesia will take a deputy commander role in a nascent International Stabilization Force, the unit’s American chief Major General Jasper Jeffers said.
Trump, whose plan for Gaza was endorsed by the UN Security Council in November, also said five countries had committed to providing troops, including Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania.
