Egyptian police on Sunday killed 10 militants in a raid on two adjacent flats used as hideouts by members of a splinter faction of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
Security officials said the raid led to a three-hour shootout in the densely populated Ard El Liwa district of Cairo. Five policemen were wounded, including two officers. One of the militants died when an explosive device he intended to use against the policemen went off prematurely, killing him instantly.
The officials said the militants were members of Hasm, a breakaway Brotherhood faction that has targeted police and army officers in Cairo over the past year in a series of brazen attacks.
Police found bomb-making materials, assault rifles and ammunition in the two flats, along with maps of vital state installations and computers in which instructions and details of future attacks were stored, they said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Earlier on Sunday, Egypt's official Mena news agency said nine militants were killed and five policemen injured in the raid.
Egypt is fighting an insurgency led by a local affiliate of ISIL based in the Sinai Peninsula as well as Brotherhood factions like Hasm, which target members of the security forces in Cairo.
Sunday's shoot-out was the latest in a series of police raids targeting Hasm members.
