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Five killed in police-militant clashes in Egypt

ASSIUT: Five people including a police general were killed as hundreds of Egyptian policemen clashed with three suspected Moslem militants in southern Egypt on Tuesday, security sources said.

They said Major-General Gamal Fayek, his brother Magdi Fayek and Lieutenant Reda Wali were shot dead by the gunmen, who were hiding in the fields around the village of Al-Ashmouneen in Minya province.

Two militants were also killed in the clash and the third is surrounded, the sources said.

The sources said they suspected the men were members of Egypt's largest militant organisation, the Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) waging an armed campaign to establish a strict Islamic state in Egypt.

The group has claimed responsibility for last Thursday's massacre of 18 Greek tourists in Cairo, saying it had planned to kill Israelis to avenge the Jewish state's bombardment of Lebanon.

The group often targets police but Fayek was the most senior officer to be killed since the group shot dead Major-General Raouf Khayrat near the Giza pyramids in April 1994.-Reuter