Egyptian police have killed six extremists who were planning to carry out terrorist attacks during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, the country's Interior Ministry said on Monday.
CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2018) Egyptian police have killed six extremists who were planning to carry out terrorist attacks during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, the country's Interior Ministry said on Monday.
The members of the terrorist cell located in 6th of October City, a satellite town that is 32 kilometers (about 20 miles) away from the country's capital of Cairo, were killed while resisting arrest during a covert police operation.
According to the Interior Ministry, the extremists were planning to attack Christian churches, strategic locations, as well as army and police personnel during the Eid al-Adha celebrations in late August.
On Saturday, Egyptian police thwarted the bombing of the Church of the Virgin Mary in the northern part of Cairo by driving away the suicide attacker with their enhanced security measures. The attacker still exploded their bomb a considerable distance away, but there were no victims apart from the terrorist.
Terrorism has been an acute issue for Egypt since militants from the country's Sinai Peninsula, who have carried out a number of deadly attacks, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, outlawed in Russia) in 2014.
Since February, the Egyptian Armed Forces have been implementing the Sinai-2018 counterterrorism operation. In late July, an Armed Forces spokesman said that over 321 terrorists were killed as part of the operation. There have also been a number of deadly attacks on the country's Christian churches over the past few years.
