Interior Ministry: Police kill 10 militants responsible for attack on Alexandria security director

Police forces killed 10 militants allegedly involved in orchestrating an attempted assassination of Alexandria's security director in March, according to a statement released by Egypt's Interior Ministry on Thursday.

The 10 militants were killed during targeted police raids on two hideouts belonging to militant group Hassm, according to the ministry's Thursday statement.

Six Hassm militants were killed when police raided their hideout in the Delta governorate of Beheira, while the other four were killed during a raid on an apartment in the governorate of Assiut, the statement said.

The ministry also added that police successfully arrested two Hassm leaders who are allegedly responsible for the attempt on Nimr's life.

On March 24, a car bomb detonated near a motorcade belonging to Alexandria's former Security Director Major General Mostafa al-Nimr as it drove through the coastal city's Rushdy neighborhood. Although Nimr was unharmed, the attack killed two policemen and injured five others.

In a statement released one day after the attack, the Interior Ministry had accused one of the suspects whose arrest it announced on Thursday, Bassem Mohamed Ibrahim, of buying the car used in the March attack and assigning tasks to various members of the militant organization.

The ministry's Thursday announcement raises the death toll of suspects thought to have taken part in the March attack to 16, after it announced that six other Hassm militants had been killed by police on March 25.