The Egyptian Interior Ministry announced on Monday that eight dangerous gang members were killed during a gunfire confrontation with police forces in Assiut, Upper Egypt, which resulted in the injury of a police officer.
It added that information and investigations by the security services indicated that the gang was involved in trafficking in narcotics, unlicensed weapons and ammunition, and terrorizing residents inthe Sahel Selem area of Assiut.
The ministry explained that this criminal group was led by Mohamed Mahsoub Ibrahim Ahmed, and is accused of 44 felonies and sentenced to prison and life imprisonment for periods totaling 191 years.
The ministry said that the rest of the gang are wanted criminals and previously sentenced to prison and life imprisonment for various felonies, and one of them was sentenced to 108 years in prison.
It added: “Investigations indicated that the members of the gang were hiding in mountainous areas and frequenting at different times one of the buildings they had built and fortified with trenches and bunkers in the village of al-Afadra in the same area.”
“After taking the legal procedures, they were targeted with the participation of forces from the Central Security Sector, where they began opening fire at the forces using firearms, RPGs, F1 grenades, automatic guns, and they also detonated gas cylinders to prevent the forces from entering the building.”
The security response to the situation resulted in their deaths and the injury of a police officer from the Central Security Forces.
Large quantities of various narcotics was seized, as well as a large number of firearms, RPGs, two grenades, 73 automatic gins, a multi-barrel machine gun, 11 shotguns, 62 locally-made guns, eight F1 bombs, and a large number of bullets of various calibers.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
