Police kill 2 members of militant group Hassm in east Cairo

The Interior Ministry announced the killing of two members of armed militant group Hassm in Cairo’s Fifth Settlement on Tuesday, one day after the group published a statement marking a year since it became active.

In a statement published on its official Facebook page the ministry said that the militants were killed while transporting weapons and equipment to Andalus City, close to the Cairo-Suez road, in an attempt to avoid detection by security forces. According to the statement police were searching the area with a permit from national security prosecutors when a vehicle suspected to be carrying the equipment shot at them. They returned fire, killing two members of the group identified as Ahmed al-Bahnasawy and Emad al-Far.

The ministry added that seven automatic weapons, two firearms, three wireless communication devices and one magnifying glass were found in the vehicle, alongside ammunition and bullet shells. The car was identified as the one used in a May attack on the ring road in Cairo, that killed three police personnel and injured five others, and the two people killed were linked to several previous operations, including a June attack on the Autostrad freeway in Cairo.

Bahnasawy received two life sentences in absentia in Ismailia, in Suez governorate and Zagazig, in Sharqiya governorate. He is also wanted in another terrorism-related case, according to the statement.

Ten days ago the ministry announced that Far’s brother, Aly al-Far, was also killed alongside two other Hassm members in a similar security operation on the Dahshour highway in Giza.

The announcement of the killing of Hassm members came one day after a statement issued by militant group commemorating one year since it first became active, pledging to continue what it called its fight against the counter-revolution. The statement continued “Our proud people, we are from you and never will we be against you. Our weapons are raised in the face of every oppressor.”

This was accompanied by statistics claiming that the group carried out five executions, 2 car-bombing operations, two armed attacks and five using explosives. Hassm estimates that these killed 27 people, injured 56 others and destroyed 17 vehicles.

In another statement published on Tuesday the MOI also announced the killing of a leader of Islamic State-affiliate Province of Sinai, Ahmed Hassan Ahmed, who they claim was responsible for recruitment.

A post published on the ministry’s Facebook page on July 12 also claimed that a Hassm leader, identified as Ahmed Mohamed Omar Suweilam, was killed in an armed confrontation in Marg, north Cairo. The group responded with its own statement, accompanied by a picture of the deceased and parts of his will.

Suweilam’s is implicated in a number of terrorism cases, believed to be involved with planning the attempted assassination of former Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa in August 2016. His name also cropped up in a confession, obtained by the Interior Ministry, from a suspect in the May ring road attack.

Hassm rose to prominence during the past year, claiming responsibility for several armed attacks on security forces and state officials. In addition to the attempt on Gomaa they claim to have carried out a December attack in Giza last December which killed six police personnel, two of whom were officers. The group also attempted to assassinate Judge Ahmed Abul-Fotouh by planting an explosive device near his home in Cairo’s Fifth Settlement suburb last November.

They also made an attempt on the life of Deputy Prosecutor General, Zakariyya Abdel-Aziz Osman last September, attacking his convoy as it left his home.

Hassm carried out its first operation last July when it killed Major Mahmoud Abdel-Hamid, the head of investigations at the Tamia police station in the Fayoum governorate, which remains one of the group’s primary areas of operation, along with Beni Suef and Giza.