TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Egyptian security forces backed by helicopters stormed a town on the outskirts of Cairo as they tried to reassert control over an area where 11 policemen were killed in clashes last month.



Police and soldiers entered the town of Kerdasa at daybreak in the second operation this week to try to restore control over areas where hostility to the authorities has grown since the army deposed President Mohamed Mursi on July 3, Reuters reported.

Security sources said the forces had seized dozens of weapons, including rocket propelled grenades. A police officer, a general, was killed in an exchange of gunfire on the outskirts of the town. Fifteen people had been arrested.

State television reported that security forces used tear gas and the state news agency said army helicopters hovered overhead. Police were hunting 140 wanted people, the Interior Ministry spokesman told state media.

"The security forces will not retreat until (Kerdasa) is cleansed of all terrorist and criminal nests," said the spokesman, Hany Abdel Latif.

Footage broadcast by the privately-owned Mihwar TV channel showed armoured personnel carriers, police and soldiers in the streets.

There had been little or no sign of state authority in Kerdasah since an August 14 attack on its police station, which killed eleven police officers, weeks after the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi in July.

Hundreds of Mursi supporters were killed on August 14, when the security forces moved against the pro-Mursi protest camps in Cairo, setting off the worst spasm of violence in Egypt's modern history.

By Tasnim News Agency

 

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