By TONY G. GABRIEL
FILE – In this file photo taken Friday, Sept. 20, 2013, Egypt’s Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, center, Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, right, and army’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Sedki Sobhi, left, attend the funeral of Giza Police Gen. Nabil Farrag in Cairo, Egypt. A heavy crackdown has thrown the 85-year-old Brotherhood into an existential crisis. Once Egypt’s dominant political force, it is now reduced to keeping a campaign of street protest simmering to show it cannot be completely wiped out and must one day have a place again in the political system. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)
CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian security official says gunmen have attacked an army convoy east of Cairo, killing two soldiers.
The official says attackers opened fire at the convoy of mostly military trucks towing tanks and other armored vehicles on Friday morning on the road between the Suez Canal city of Ismailia and Cairo.
He says the two killed were conscripts. Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack and were taken to hospital. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.
Militants have stepped up attacks against Egyptian troops, mostly in the volatile Sinai Peninsula but also on occasion have come closer to the country’s capital.
The surge followed the Egyptian military’s ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in a popularly-backed coup in July.
