Two ‘State of Sinai’ militants were allegedly killed in the Gesr Al-Seweis area of East Cairo on Friday, according to a Ministry of Interior statement on Friday.
Police forces first spotted a car that had been used in previous militant attacks in the Abu Rgeila area, near Al-Salam police station. The suspects opened fire as they tried to escape and the police responded, killing “the Ansar Beit Al Maqdis members”, the ministry said.
Formerly known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, ‘State of Sinai’ changed its name in November after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). The Ministry of Interior continues to call it by its former name.
“National Security information confirmed that a group of terrorist elements of the so-called Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis organisation who are involved in carrying out several terrorist attacks and targeting policemen and army personnel were hiding in Gesr Al-Seweis and planning from there a series of terrorist attacks,” the statement read.
The alleged operatives killed are Mohamed Rabie Mohamed Younis, 28, who has the code name “Akram” and Abdelrahman Ali Sobhi Farahat, 24. Younis is allegedly responsible for organising Ansar Beit Al Maqdis activities in the capital.
The shooting also resulted in injuring three policemen and two passers-by.
The ministry statement listed a number of attacks the group was responsible for, among them killing army brigadier general Mohamed Said Mostafa and a soldier who was driving his car on 28 November. The group is also accused of creating ambushes in Qalyubia, New Cairo and Nozha.
A November statement for the organisation called for “taking the fight to Cairo”. It came after it pledged loyalty to the Islamic State and the organisation changed its name subsequently to ’State of Sinai’.
The killing of Younes and Farahat is the second instance in which security forces claim to have killed members of the Sinai-based militant group in Cairo. The first was the killing of Mohamed Mansour El-Toukhy, codenamed “Abu Obaida”, who claimed responsible for bombing Cairo Security headquarters back in January, and was killed in the Ain Shams neighbourhood in March.
