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Egyptian police kill four in gun battle

ASSIUT: Egyptian police shot dead four suspected Moslem militants in a gun battle in southern Egypt, security sources said on Friday.

Suspected Moslem gunmen killed two civilians and wounded another in a separate incident when they attacked a farm, the sources added.

Both attacks took place on Thursday afternoon in the southern Egyptian province of Minya where militants have concentrated their low-level guerrilla war in the past few months.

In the first incident, militants opened fire on a police convoy driving through a village near the town of Samalout in northern Minya, the sources said.

Police returned fire killing four militants, who they later described as "dangerous elements". There were no police casualties, the sources said.

Human rights groups have criticised police accounts of militant deaths in southern Egypt, saying security forces often exercise a shoot-to-kill policy rather than giving militants the chance to surrender.

In the second incident, which took place in Bani Obeid village near Abu Qorqas town in southern Minya, gunmen killed farmer Alaa Hassan Abdullah, 30, who they suspected of being a police informer and Bahaa Mohammed Abbas, 23, another farmer who was passing by the farm at the time, the sources said.

Ibrahim Shehata Kenz, 40, another passer-by, was wounded.

Police believe the gunmen are members of the miliant al-Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group), which launched an anti-government campaign more than three years ago.-Reuter