Egypt arrests 10 suspected militants over planning attacks

The Egyptian police dismantled a 10-member militant cell suspected of planning anti-government terrorist attacks in Suez province northeast of the capital Cairo, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

The statement said the suspects confessed they had planned to carry out terrorist attacks against security and judicial premises.

According to the statement, one of the suspects, identified as Abdel-Rahman al-Hadi, was trained by a Sinai-based group loyal to the Islamic State (IS).

Egypt has been facing a rising wave of terrorist activities, mostly in North Sinai, since the military removed former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his now-blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.

Since then, the crackdown on Morsi's supporters has left about 1,000 killed and thousands more arrested, while anti-government attacks, mostly claimed by the IS-affiliated group in Sinai, have killed hundreds of police and military personnel.

Security raids have so far killed about 1,200 militants in North Sinai as part of the country's "anti-terror war" declared by former military chief and current President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. Endit