Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday urged security bodies to exert utmost efforts to hunt for the perpetrators of the Friday terrorist attack that left 16 policemen dead in the desert of Giza province.
Sisi’s remarks came during a meeting with Defense Minister Sedqi Sobhi, Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar, and head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service Khaled Fawzi, Presidential Spokesman Alaa Youssef said in a statement.
Sisi called for intensifying security and military efforts to prevent any infiltration attempts by terrorists via the country’s borders.
President Sisi asserted that Egypt will effectively and decisively continue to fight terrorism and combat those who fund terrorists, the statement added.
The Egyptian president also affirmed that the sacrifices of those policemen, who were killed in the attack, will not go in vain.
On Saturday, Egyptian Interior Ministry announced that 16 policemen were killed and another was missing in the Friday shootout with terrorists in Wahat area in the desert of Giza province near the capital Cairo.
The ministry said in a statement that 15 terrorists were either killed or injured in the armed clash, adding that 13 policemen and officers were also injured.
Egypt has been fighting against a wave of terror activities that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the military toppled former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
Terror attacks in Egypt used to be centered in North Sinai before spreading nationwide and killing hundreds of policemen and soldiers over the past few years.
Meanwhile, security raids killed hundreds of militants and arrested a similar number of suspects as part of the country’s anti-terror war.
