Egyptian security forces kill Ajnad Misr chief

The head of a militant group in Egypt responsible for deadly attacks in the North African country has been killed in an exchange of fire with security forces in the capital city of Cairo, sources say.

Thirty three-year-old Hammam Mohamed Attiyah, the leader and founder of extremist group Ajnad Misr, or Soldiers of Egypt, was killed during a raid on an apartment in southern Cairo on Sunday, said an Egyptian security official, whose name was not mentioned in reports.

Attiyah was formerly a member of the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Bait al-Maqdis militant group but broke way in 2013 to found Ajnad Misr, Egypt’s Interior Ministry said in a statement issued on Sunday.

Ajnad Misr “is accused of carrying out 26” raids on police forces, mostly in Cairo, the statement added.

Security forces found an automatic rifle, a handgun and four primed bombs as well as 18 more explosive devices inside the apartment, according to the statement.

Describing Attiyah as a “fugitive terrorist,” Interior Ministry spokesman General Hani Abdel Latif said he was “plotting and preparing to carry out criminal plans.”

Earlier in the day, Ajnad Misr claimed responsibility for a bombing attack that killed a police officer and wounded two civilians on a bridge in the affluent Zamalek neighborhood of Cairo.

The militant group also claimed responsibility for bombings outside Egypt’s presidential palace and Foreign Ministry last year, which killed four police officers.