Egypt security kills 12 people for 'planning chaos'

Egypt’s interior ministry yesterday said it had killed 12 individuals in the capital city of Cairo for allegedly “planning to cause chaos across the country.”

“We’ve monitored a number of individuals linked to the Islamist Hasm Movement at an apartment located in 6 of October district, wast of Cairo,” the ministry said in a statement, continuing: “After our security forces raided the apartment, clashes between both sides took place, leaving seven of the group militants dead.”

The ministry added that its forces had raided another apartment Cairo’s eastern district of El-Shorouk, where they had shot five people found in possession of the number of automatic rifles.

Since the start of 2019, state authorities have been announcing several similar operations, most recently the one that was declared by the army last Thursday, where 47 gunmen were killed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

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On 11 April, the interior ministry said it had killed 11 “insurgents” for allegedly “exchanging gunshots in Sinai’s northern AL-Arish resort.” Also, the ministry killed another five people in February, it said were linked to the Muslim Brotherhood group, an opposition group, the government, outlawed in 2013.

In January, the Egyptian military and police forces launched what it called “a comprehensive operation” to crush Daesh. The troops have killed at least 52 suspected militants and destroyed 56 vehicles ever since.

Egypt has been conducting a long-running campaign in the Sinai governorate, allegedly against Daesh militants. However, the operation has witnessed thousands of human rights violations, with the military accused of indiscriminately bombing civilian areas and conducting thousands of extra-judicial killings of residents, regardless of their affiliation.

Nearly 420,000 people in four north-eastern cities are in urgent need for humanitarian assistance due to the ongoing battle, according to Human Rights Watch, with the military also known to be using US-manufactured cluster bombs in civilian areas.