Scene of Cairo explosion
Scene of Cairo explosionReuters

Egyptian security forces killed at least 17 suspected militants in raids in Cairo and in another province, officials said Thursday, according to The Associated Press.

The raid came four days after a car exploded outside the county's main cancer hospital, killing at least 20 people in what President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi later said was a terrorist attack.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said in a statement on Thursday that eight of the militants were killed when security forces stormed their hideout in the town of Atsa in Fayoum province, located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Cairo.

It said another seven were killed in the Cairo suburb of Shortouk. The remaining two, including a brother of the suspected militant who was driving the car, were also killed in Cairo, the ministry said. It said police arrested another suspect.

The ministry also said it identified the bomber from Monday’s attack as fugitive 24-year-old Abdel Rahman Khaled Mahmoud Abdel Rahman.

“This was confirmed following the DNA testing of the remains that were found at the site of the accident and based on the comparison with members of his family’s (DNA),” the statement said, according to Reuters.

Rahman and the other militants killed were members of the Hasm terrorist organization, which has links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Hasm is a group that first emerged in 2016 and has claimed several attacks on security forces, including the fatal shooting of a policeman and injuries to three others in the province.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which Cairo outlawed in 2013, denies the Egyptian government’s claims that it is connected to Hasm.

Egypt has been fighting an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula for several years, which at times has spilled over into other parts of the country. Most of the attacks this time period have been claimed by the Sinai Province, the Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in Egypt.

The country has been under a state of emergency since April of 2018, after two suicide bombings at churches claimed by ISIS killed at least 45 people in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria.