Gunmen kill 3 policemen in Cairo
Five policemen were also injured in late night drive-by shooting
CAIRO: Gunmen armed with machineguns attacked a police patrol in Cairo, killing three policemen and wounding five others before fleeing the scene of the late night drive-by shooting, Egypt’s Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.
The ministry said the attack took place in the neighbourhood of Nasr City where gunmen in two cars approached the patrol and opened fire at the policemen. The statement said two of the three policemen killed had the rank of captain.
The patrol exchanged fire with the attackers, the ministry said but did not specify how many assailants were involved or if any of them were wounded. An investigation is under way, it said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the brazen attack in the Egyptian capital.
Apart from the extremist Daesh group, the shadowy Hasm, or “Decisiveness” — a lesser militant group the government suspects is linked to the banned Muslim Brotherhood — has carried out similar assaults in the past.
The Daesh-led insurgency is centred mainly in the restive, northern part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, but militants have occasionally struck farther south and also on the mainland — such as in last month’s massive suicide bombings in Tanta and in Alexandria. Both attacks were claimed by Daesh.
Monday’s drive-by attack came two days after Pope Francis wrapped up a historic visit to Egypt during which security was exceptionally tight, with police swarming Cairo’s streets, particularly around the Vatican Embassy in the upscale neighbourhood on the Nile River island of Zamalek and elsewhere where the pontiff visited.
The Hasm group has claimed several previous attacks in Cairo, usually targeting police positions and patrols. Its other attacks included a shooting against the country’s former chief Muslim theologian and a car bombing against the deputy of the chief prosecutor. Both escaped unharmed.
Insurgent attacks have dramatically increased in Egypt since the military’s 2013 ouster of elected Islamist president, Mohammad Mursi, a Brotherhood leader. The violence has mainly been concentrated in northern Sinai, where Daesh-linked militants are battling the army.
