Egypt Shakes Up Security Forces After Deadly Ambush of Police<br />29, 2017<br />CAIRO — Egypt carried out a sweeping reshuffle of its security forces, removing a dozen senior police<br />and military officials from critical posts just a week after an ambush by militants killed at least 16 policemen in the desert outside Cairo.<br />Egyptian security officials told several news outlets, including The New York Times,<br />that the ambush attack killed over 50 policemen, but the Egyptian Interior Ministry insisted that only 16 died.<br />Mr. Sisi’s campaign against armed Islamist groups began in July 2013, shortly after he, as military<br />chief at the time, ousted Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist president, amid mass protests.<br />Saturday’s shake-up included the dismissal of Mahmoud Hegazy, the military chief of staff; 11 police generals, including the security chief of Giza, the area where the attack occurred;<br />and the head of the National Security Agency, the police’s intelligence division.<br />Mr. Hegazy, whose daughter is married to a son of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, was appointed<br />to a new position as crisis management adviser to the president, the military statement said.<br />But Egyptian security officials said the reorganization was prompted by the devastating<br />attack, which targeted a police convoy inside the country’s western desert on Oct. 20.
