Gunmen kill six soldiers in Egyptian capital

Gunmen have attacked a checkpoint in a northern suburb of Egypt’s capital city of Cairo, killing six soldiers.

An Egyptian security official said the deadly attack was carried out during the early hours of Saturday in Shubra al-Kheima.

The official added that explosive disposal experts defused two bombs left behind by the assailants.

An Egyptian private television station quoted an official from the interior ministry as saying that one of the bombs was put next to a soldier’s corpse.

The Egyptian army has blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the Saturday attack, which came two days after gunmen killed another soldier in Cairo.

The Brotherhood denies any involvement.

Egypt has seen a sharp rise in drive-by shootings and attacks targeting police and the military since last July, when the military ousted the country’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

According to reports, at least 250 police and soldiers have been killed in armed attacks since then.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International says a crackdown by the Egyptian military-backed interim government on Morsi’s supporters has claimed some 1,400 lives.

Most of the assaults since the ouster have been carried out in the restive Sinai Peninsula, but in recent months militants have expanded their reach to the Nile Delta and the capital.