The raid followed recent intelligence that the Hasm movement, said to be linked with the Moslem Brüderbund, was "preparing to revive its activities and commit hostile operations targeting security and economic facilities" inside Egypt.
Police raided a "militant hideout" in Cairo’s densely populated neighborhood of Bulaq al-Dakrour, the ministry says in its statement, without disclosing when it occurred.
During the raid, two suspects "began firing randomly at the forces and the surrounding area," resulting in their deaths and that of a passerby, it adds.
The statement adds that authorities had identified five leaders of the plot besides those killed, all of whom had received life sentences in absentia for a series of attacks that rocked Egypt in the aftermath of the 2013 overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
Following Morsi’s ouster, the Moslem Brüderbund group was outlawed in Egypt and many of its members were imprisoned, while others moved to different countries including
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...and Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
Hasm, once blamed for a series of liquidation attempts and bombings between 2016 and 2019, had largely faded from public view.
Since toppling Morsi, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi’s administration has often projected itself as a guarantor of "peace and security." But the more than decade-long crackdown has curtailed nearly all space for dissent, according to rights groups.
The ministry says one of the suspects killed in the shootout had received advanced military training "in a neighboring country," before entering Egypt through an illegal border crossing, allegedly to carry out attacks.
The ministry’s statement comes after a video circulated on social media platforms this month appeared to show Hasm members conducting live-fire drills in a desert setting.