Egyptian security chief says raid into Islamist stronghold went according to plan

Egyptian security forces backed by armored fighting vehicles and helicopters stormed a tourist town near the Great Pyramids that became an Islamist stronghold on Thursday, the latest in a stepped up campaign by the military-backed government to put down armed supporters of the ousted president.   
          
A senior police commander at the scene, General Medhat el-Menshawy, said police arrested 55 suspects in house-to-house raids in Kerdasa.        

"I would like to assure everyone that everything is going according to our plan and that we are gaining ground by the minute," el-Menshawy said.                              

As they moved into Kerdasa at around 0600 (local time, 0400 GMT), the troops and police came under barrages of fire from gunmen on rooftops.                           

Militants took control of the town just outside Cairo more than a month ago amid a nationwide backlash of violence by Islamists enraged by the military coup that removed President Mohammed Morsi and by a crackdown against his supporters that followed.                          

A police general was killed in the first moments of the battle.             

General Nabil Farrag had just given a pep talk to his men on the street, preparing them to roll into the town, when they came under a hail of gunfire, according to an Associated Press photographer and video journalists at the scene.Soldiers and the police took cover behind armored vehicles and behind walls.                                                 

Farrag was killed by a bullet wound in his right side, getting past the body armor he was wearing.                            

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 Morsi supporters, 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.


AP