Eight Policemen Killed in Attack on Outskirts of Cairo

CAIRO (Reuters) —
Egyptian police and civilians gather around a bullet ridden microbus in the south Cairo neighborhood of Helwan, Sunday, May 8, 2016. Gunmen opened fire on a microbus filled with plainclothes police in a Cairo suburb early Sunday, killing eight of them, including an officer, Egypt's state news agency reported. (AP Photo/Mohsen Nabil)
Egyptian police and civilians gather around a bullet-ridden microbus in the south Cairo neighborhood of Helwan, Sunday. (AP Photo/Mohsen Nabil)

Unidentified terrorists killed eight policemen dressed in civilian clothes, including an officer, in an attack on a police vehicle in Helwan, just south of Cairo, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

The Ministry said in a statement on its official social media page that four terrorists with automatic weapons got out of a small pickup truck, stopped the police car, sprayed it with bullets and then fled.

Residents told Reuters the terrorists wore masks. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Egypt is facing an insurgency, mainly based in North Sinai, that has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since mid-2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi after protests against his rule.

While the deadliest attacks take place in Sinai, terrorists have targeted security forces and planted bombs in Cairo and other cities.

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