Egypt’s Interior Ministry said on Friday it killed an official with the terrorist group Hasm in Damietta.
A statement from the ministry said that the deceased terrorist was implicated in the killing of a watchman from Damietta police station in March.
Police detectives received a tip that Mohamed Balbola, 33, is hiding out in Al-Sayala area of Damietta.
The information was immediately processed and check points were set up to arrest the suspect. However, when security forces tried to arrest him while he was driving a motorcycle, he opened fire on them; the forces fired back, killing him and seizing his automatic riffle and motorcycle, the statement said.
In February, Abdeen Summary Proceedings Court banned the Hasm movement and declared it a terrorist organization.
The movement has claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks, among them the failed assassination attempt of Judge Zakaria Abdul Aziz, Assistant Attorney General, who tried the ousted president of Egypt Mohamed Morsi in 2015. Hasm has also claimed responsibility for the failed assassination attempt of former Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa.
In December 2016, Hasm movement killed 6 policemen in an attack on a security checkpoint on the main road leading to the Pyramids.
The movement is described by security forces as an armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood describes itself as a peaceful organization.
Hasm, meaning 'decisiveness' in Arabic, has accused judges of sentencing thousands of innocent people to death or jailing them for life, at the behest of the military.
