Five Egyptian police killed near Cairo

On Saturday morning unknown, armed assailants opened fire on an Egyptian military police checkpoint on the outskirts of Cairo killing five policemen, an Egyptian state TV and Middle East news agency reported.

Meanwhile, explosives experts defused two bombs planted at another checkpoint nearby.

A security source reported that police saw the ‘terrorists,’ opened fire on them but they successfully fled.

The police searched the area and found that the armed ‘terrorists’ had killed five policemen. Further police reinforcement and explosives experts searched for other explosives.

Since the freely elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the army, around 300 Egyptian security staff have been killed in different areas across the country.

The coup regime and other supporting parties blame the Muslim Brotherhood for the violence against security and police staff, but the group denies it and distances itself from such attacks.