Alwaght- More than 50 Egyptian police and conscripts were killed and six more wounded on Friday during a raid on a militant hideout in the western desert.
Reuters news agency quoted sources as saying the deaths occurred on Friday when the officers were following a lead to an apartment thought to house eight suspected members of Hasm Movement. The group has claimed attacks around Cairo targeting judges and police.
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, one senior security source said.
Militants are mostly fighting in remote northern Sinai where the Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014. Attacks mostly hit police and armed forces, but militants have also targeted Egypt’s Christians and tourists.
