By AHMED ABDEL-FATTAH and MOHAMMED WAGDY
Egyptian security forces help the lifeless body of Giza Police Gen. Nabil Farrag, center, who was killed after unidentified militants opened fire on security forces deployed early morning to the town of Kerdasa to drive off suspected Islamists taking control of the town near Giza Pyramids, Egypt, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013. Egyptian security forces backed by armored vehicles and military helicopters on Thursday laid a siege on an Islamists’ stronghold near Giza Pyramids and exchanged fire with what official news agency identified as “terrorist and criminal elements.” (AP Photo/Ahmed Abdel Fattah)
KERDASA, Egypt (AP) — Egyptian security forces backed by armored fighting vehicles and helicopters stormed a town known to be an Islamist stronghold outside of Cairo near the Great Pyramids on Thursday, coming under barrages of fire from gunmen on rooftops as they searched door to door for militants.
A police general fell in the first moments of the battle at around 6 a.m. Gen. Nabil Farrag had just given a pep talk to his men on the street, preparing them to roll into the town of Kerdasa, when they came under a hail of gunfire, according to an Associated Press photographer and video journalists at the scene.
Army soldiers and policemen ducked for cover behind armored vehicles and behind walls. Farrag fell with a bullet wound in his right side, getting past the body armor he was wearing. He lay in the street for nearly 15 minutes, blood soaking through his white uniform, until his men could reach him and carry him into a sedan to take to a hospital.
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 supporters of Egypt’s ousted Islamist president, 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.
Kerdasa carries more strategic importance than Dalga since it is a short drive away from Cairo’s center and is near the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt’s primary tourist attraction.
The town witnessed a brutal assault on security forces last month when heavily armed Morsi supporters killed 15 police officers and mutilated their bodies. The attack was part of a wave of retaliatory violence around the country after security forces cracked down on the main pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo with heavy assaults that killed hundreds.
Morsi supporters at the time drove police out of Kerdasa, blocking the main roads. Authorities named more than 140 people suspected of involvement in the police killings, including several members of Gamaa Islamiya, a hard-line group that waged an armed insurgency in the 1990s. The group later renounced violence and was a strong Morsi ally before and during his year in office.
On Thursday, a large force of army troops and policemen surrounded Kerdasa, blocking entrances with armed vehicles, as security forces moved into the town. State TV said security forces were using loudspeakers urged residents to stay indoors to avoid the crossfire.
Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Hani Abdel-Latif said police plan to besiege the town along with the army, which would then deploy special forces to round up armed men.
“There will be no retreat until it is cleansed of all terrorist and criminal hideouts,” he said in a statement.
A senior police commander at the scene, Gen. Medhat el-Menshawy, said police arrested 55 suspects in house-to-house raids in Kerdasa. Egypt’s official news agency said those detained included three men suspected of involvement in the killings of the policemen.
El-Menshawy said at least 10 policemen were injured in two separate grenade attacks.
The quick succession of the two major raids against Kerdasa and Dalga point to a new push by authorities to restore law and order throughout a country roiled by unrest and violence since the 2011 ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
More than a 1,000 people have died in political violence since June 30 when millions of Egyptians took to the streets to demand the ouster of Morsi. Since the July 3 coup that removed him, Morsi has been detained at an undisclosed location.
In a sign security may finally be showing some improvement, state television on Thursday said the nighttime curfew slapped on the country since mid-August will be reduced by one hour effective Saturday to start at midnight and be lifted at 5 a.m. The curfew on Friday will continue to start at 7 p.m. but will also end at 5 a.m.
