KERDASA, Egypt (AP)
-- Egyptian security forces backed by armored fighting vehicles and
helicopters stormed a town known to be an Islamist stronghold outside of
Cairo near the Great Pyramids on Thursday, coming under barrages of
fire from gunmen on rooftops as they searched door to door for
militants.
A police general fell in the first
moments of the battle at around 6 a.m. Gen. Nabil Farrag had just given a
pep talk to his men on the street, preparing them to roll into the town
of Kerdasa, when they came under a hail of gunfire, according to an
Associated Press photographer and video journalists at the scene.
Army
soldiers and policemen ducked for cover behind armored vehicles and
behind walls. Farrag fell with a bullet wound in his right side, getting
past the body armor he was wearing. He lay in the street for nearly 15
minutes, blood soaking through his white uniform, until his men could
reach him and carry him into a sedan to take to a hospital.
The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the police, later announced Farrag's death.
The
assault on Kerdasa underlined a stepped-up resolve by the
military-backed government to suppress strongholds of supporters of
Egypt's ousted Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. Earlier this week, a
large army-police force stormed Dalga, a town in southern Egypt, to
break the hold of Islamic militants who took control there after the
military toppled Morsi on July 3.
Kerdasa
carries more strategic importance than Dalga since it is a short drive
away from Cairo's center and is near the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt's
primary tourist attraction.
The town witnessed
a brutal assault on security forces last month when heavily armed Morsi
supporters killed 15 police officers and mutilated their bodies. The
attack was part of a wave of retaliatory violence around the country
after security forces cracked down on the main pro-Morsi protest camps
in Cairo with heavy assaults that killed hundreds.
Morsi
supporters at the time drove police out of Kerdasa, blocking the main
roads. Authorities named more than 140 people suspected of involvement
in the police killings, including several members of Gamaa Islamiya, a
hard-line group that waged an armed insurgency in the 1990s. The group
later renounced violence and was a strong Morsi ally before and during
his year in office.
On Thursday, a large force
of army troops and policemen surrounded Kerdasa, blocking entrances
with armed vehicles, as security forces moved into the town. State TV
said security forces were using loudspeakers urged residents to stay
indoors to avoid the crossfire.
Interior
Ministry spokesman Gen. Hani Abdel-Latif said police plan to besiege the
town along with the army, which would then deploy special forces to
round up armed men.
"There will be no retreat until it is cleansed of all terrorist and criminal hideouts," he said in a statement.
A
senior police commander at the scene, Gen. Medhat el-Menshawy, said
police arrested 55 suspects in house-to-house raids in Kerdasa. Egypt's
official news agency said those detained included three men suspected of
involvement in the killings of the policemen.
El-Menshawy said at least 10 policemen were injured in two separate grenade attacks.
The
quick succession of the two major raids against Kerdasa and Dalga point
to a new push by authorities to restore law and order throughout a
country roiled by unrest and violence since the 2011 ouster of longtime
autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
More than a 1,000
people have died in political violence since June 30 when millions of
Egyptians took to the streets to demand the ouster of Morsi. Since the
July 3 coup that removed him, Morsi has been detained at an undisclosed
location.
In a sign security may finally be
showing some improvement, state television on Thursday said the
nighttime curfew slapped on the country since mid-August will be reduced
by one hour effective Saturday to start at midnight and be lifted at 5
a.m. The curfew on Friday will continue to start at 7 p.m. but will also
end at 5 a.m.
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