Hassm claims responsibility for Fayoum shooting that killed 1 CSF conscript, injured 3 others

On Friday, armed militant group Hassm claimed responsibility for the shooting that killed one Central Security Forces conscript and injured three others on Thursday night in the Fayoum governorate south of the capital.

The attacks comes as a response to recent police operations, said Hassm in a statement.

“As three police vehicles from the Fayoum security directorate passed through the Fayoum/Cairo ring road, anonymous militants shot heavily at the vehicles from cultivated fields on the side of the road,” read the Interior Ministry statement late Thursday night.

The killed CSF conscript was identified as Essam Saber Metwally, according to the Interior Ministry.

On Friday afternoon, Fayoum security forces killed two militants in a shoot-out at one of the militants’ houses, reported State-owned Al-Ahram Arabic website.

Shootouts between the security forces and Hassm have increased in the past few weeks. On Tuesday, The Interior Ministry announced the killing of two members of Hassm in Cairo’s Fifth Settlement, one day after the group published a statement marking a year since they became active.

In its statement, Hassm provided statistics claiming that the group carried out five executions, two car-bombing operations, two armed attacks and five operations using explosives. Hassm estimates that these killed 27 people, injured 56 others and destroyed 17 vehicles.

On Sunday, the Egyptian Army and the Air Force reported killing a combined number of three militants in central Sinai and the arrest of a fourth, according to a statement made by the military spokesperson that morning, which did not mention when it took place. The Interior Ministry also announced the killing of six militants on Saturday: two in Giza, reported as members of the Hassm armed movement, and another four in the Suez city of Ismailia, killed in a shootout with police forces. On Friday, five policemen were killed after unidentified gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in Giza’s Badrasheen neighborhood. The Interior Ministry arrested four suspects in the attack.

But the most notable operation claimed by Hassm thus far is the assassination of National Security Agency officer Ibrahim Azazy.

Egyptian police and the armed forces have been facing increasing attacks in Sinai since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 on the back of popular protests against his rule. The attacks have expanded to the Delta in recent years.