This article is from the source 'independent' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/egypt-attacks-two-police-officers-shot-dead-by-unidentified-gunmen-near-pyramids-of-giza-in-cairo-a6803746.html
The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Previous version
1
Next version
Version 0 | Version 1 |
---|---|
Egypt attacks: Two police officers shot dead by unidentified gunmen near Pyramids of Giza in Cairo | Egypt attacks: Two police officers shot dead by unidentified gunmen near Pyramids of Giza in Cairo |
(34 minutes later) | |
Two Egyptian police officers have been shot dead in Cairo as they made their way to work near the Pyramids of Giza. | Two Egyptian police officers have been shot dead in Cairo as they made their way to work near the Pyramids of Giza. |
The Interior Ministry published pictures of the two men on its Facebook page, saying they had been travelling through the district in their car. | The Interior Ministry published pictures of the two men on its Facebook page, saying they had been travelling through the district in their car. |
“Immediately after the incident several moving and fixed checkpoints were deployed in the Muneeb area in order to crack down on the attackers and catch them,” a security source was quoted as saying by the state news agency. | “Immediately after the incident several moving and fixed checkpoints were deployed in the Muneeb area in order to crack down on the attackers and catch them,” a security source was quoted as saying by the state news agency. |
The gunmen were not identified and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. | |
It is not the first time police have been targeted in Giza, which lies south-west of central Cairo and houses the world-famous Ancient Egyptian pyramids. | |
On 28 November, masked men riding a motorbike shot four police officers dead between the Giza and Saqqara pyramids. | |
Isis’ Egyptian affiliate claimed responsibility for that attack but not for a previous shooting that killed two police officer guarding tourists in Giza on 3 June last year. | |
Saturday’s shootings came after two men attacked a hotel in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, wounding two Austrians and a Swede before one was shot dead and the other detained. | |
Witnesses reported seeing the assailants waving an Isis flag but representatives of the Bella Vista resort called the rumours “nonsense” and blamed “drugged young men” for the incident. | |
Their injuries were not serious and all three victims were expected to be discharged from hospital by the end of today. | |
Hisham Zazou, Egypt’s tourism minister, was travelling to visit the affected tourists as he sought to play down the incident. | |
“If someone wants to claim that this is part of a terrorist group, it is a bit amateurish for that,” he was quoted as saying by AFP. | |
“They used only knives. If someone wants to attempt really to create a terrible incident, he would not be using a knife.” | |
Isis claimed responsibility for a separate attack on the Three Pyramids Hotel in Cairo on Thursday, where no one was injured. | Isis claimed responsibility for a separate attack on the Three Pyramids Hotel in Cairo on Thursday, where no one was injured. |
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has declared war on Islamist militants who have launched suicide bombings and shootings across the country. | |
Egypt’s most active terrorist group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, pledged allegiance to Isis in 2014 and started calling itself Wilayat Sinai. | |
Its jihadists are mainly active in the Sinai Peninsula, where they claimed to have bombed a Russian passenger plane with 224 people on board in October, and have also claimed responsibility for attacks in Cairo, the western desert and Nile delta. | |
Additional reporting by agencies | Additional reporting by agencies |
Previous version
1
Next version