Launching of New Alamein City postponed

CAIRO – 21 October 2017: The launching of the New Alamein City has been postponed after 30 policemen and officers died in an operation against a terrorist cell in Egypt’s Western Desert on Friday. The opening was due to take place on Saturday, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Alamein.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi will hold a memorial for the martyrs and celebrate the memory of the Battle of Alamein, which took place in 1942 between the Allies and the Axis powers when Egypt was still under British occupation during World War II.

Security sources said authorities were following a lead to a hideout deep in the desert thought to house eight suspected members of Hasm, a group which has claimed several attacks around the capital targeting judges and police since last year.

A convoy of four SUVs and one interior ministry vehicle was ambushed from higher ground by militants firing rocket-propelled grenades and detonating explosive devices, a senior source in the Giza Security Office said.