Hasm claims responsibility for Fayoum shooting

CAIRO – 21 July 2017: Hasm militant group claimed responsibility for the attack that killed a police man and injured three others in Fayoum governorate, south of Cairo, Reuters reported Friday.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a police vehicle on a ring road in Fayoum on Thursday.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement released right after the incident that security forces were stepping up efforts to arrest attackers, who reportedly hid in a farmland near the highway.

Earlier on Friday, security officials announced that two terrorists were killed after attempting to open fire at security forces while trying to capture them along Cairo’s desert road in Fayoum.

The terrorists killed were in possession of set of gunshots and a rifle, while one terrorist element managed to escape.

On July 15, two members of the Hasmgroup were killed in a shootout with security forces in Giza and Ismailia governorates.

The two were responsible for providing improvised explosive devices to the terrorist group, according to a statement by the Ministry of Interior.

The ministry’s statement added that the security forces also killed four militants during a shootout in Ismailia, earlier on July 15.

The Hasm militant group is an armed group reportedly associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in Egypt. The attacks carried out by Hasm target security forces, including an attack in December 2016 on two security checkpoints on Al-Haram street, which killed six security personnel and injured three others.