Egypt: 2 militants killed at hideout northwest of Cairo

CAIRO – Egypt’s Interior Ministry says security forces have killed two members of a group with suspected links to the Muslim Brotherhood in a shootout at their hideout northwest of Cairo.

The ministry says the suspects were among the “most prominent cadres” of the Hasm movement, a group that routinely targets Egyptian security forces in bombings and drive-by shootings

Thursday statement also says the men, both in their 30s, used a desert hideout in the Wadi el-Natroun area to manufacture improvised explosive devices. Weapons and ammunition were also found in their possession.

Militant attacks have increased dramatically in Egypt since the military’s 2013 ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure. The violence has been concentrated in the northern Sinai Peninsula, but has also spread to the mainland.