Egyptian security forces raided a village near the Giza Pyramids on Tuesday hunting for suspects in the brutal killing of 15 policemen last month, the latest move by authorities to assert state control over Islamist strongholds that have resisted state authority since the country's July 3 coup.
The early morning security sweep of Nahya just west of Cairo comes one day after a court issued a ruling banning the Muslim Brotherhood group, from which ousted President Mohammed Morsi hails, and ordering confiscation of its assets.
Security forces backed by armored vehicles and accompanied by masked commandos conducted house-to-house raids in Nahya searching for suspects alleged to have killed the 15 police officers on Aug. 14 in the adjacent town of Kerdasa and mutilated their bodies. That attack came in retaliation for a violent assault by security forces on pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo that left hundreds dead and sparked days of unrest.
Police stayed out of Kerdasa for over a month after the killings, and residents say Islamists dominated the town. But the military and police went back in last week, sparking a gunbattle in which a senior police officer was shot dead. Scores of suspects were rounded up. The scenes were reminiscent of the Egyptian government's battle with an Islamist insurgency in the 1990s, which lasted years and left thousands dead. Keep reading
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