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EGYPT-UNREST-EXPLOSION-SECURITY
17 ‘terrorists’ killed in Egypt operation linked to car blast: ministry
CAIRO, Aug 9, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Egyptian security forces killed 17
“terrorists” on Thursday during an operation against suspects in last
weekend’s deadly car blast in Cairo that claimed some 20 lives.
The interior ministry said the 17 killed belonged to the Hasm group, an
armed affiliate of the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi has called the collision between
several vehicles in Cairo a “terrorist act” as one of the cars was loaded
with explosives.
The collision happened just before midnight Sunday, when a speeding car
packed with explosives drove against the traffic and crashed into three other
vehicles outside the National Cancer Institute in the Egyptian capital.
According to the health ministry, at least 20 people were killed in the
collision.
The Hasm group was “behind the preparations of the vehicle” that caused the
explosion, the interior ministry said in a statement.
It added that it had identified the suicide driver of the vehicle as a
member of Hasm.
Security forces were able to “locate members of a Hasm cell” and killed 17
of them, including the brother of the suicide car bomber, during operations
in Cairo and in Faiyum, south of the capital, the ministry said.
It was not immediatedly clear if the Hasm cell and the 17 people were
directly involved in Sunday’s deadly collision.
Since 2016 the Hasm group has claimed responsibility for several attacks
against police, officials and judges in Cairo.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0905 hrs