A day after deadly clashes transpired between Egyptian police and suspected militants in the Western Desert on Monday, conflicting reports regarding the number of killed security personnel emerge. Egypt’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement that 16 members of the security forces, including 11 officers and four conscripts were killed when two patrols were ambushed by terrorist elements during a raid on their hideout southwest of Cairo off the Wahat road. Meanwhile, Reuters, the BBC, AP and the Guardian report at least 52 dead police personnel, including 20 officers and 34 conscripts, citing unnamed security sources. If confirmed, it would be the deadliest attack suffered by the Egyptian police and security forces in years. “As soon as the first mission approached the location of the terrorist elements, they sensed the arrival of the forces and targeted them using heavy weapons from all directions,” the interior ministry said in the statement. The ministry did not clarify the discrepancy between its own figures and the ones gathered by the foreign press. Fifteen suspected militants also perished in the gunbattle. Police vehicles were ambushed while driving towards what they had been tipped off as…
Conflicting Reports About Number of Dead in Egypt’s Wahat Attack
October 22, 2017
