All the perpetrators of a terrorist attack that killed 16 Egyptian police officers in the Western Desert in October have been killed bar one foreigner who has been arrested, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Wednesday.
El-Sisi said that Egyptian authorities would reveal the foreigner’s nationality and confession after the end of the World Youth Forum, which is ongoing in Sharm El-Sheikh this week, state-run MENA agency reported.
"The perpetrators of the Wahat attack were aiming to target Wadi El-Rayan Monastery,” El-Sisi said in his comments on the sidelines of the forum, which concludes on Friday.
The Coptic Orthodox monastery is located in Fayoum governorate, around 100km south of Cairo.
The Egyptian president also said that army and police forces are currently combing the country's Western Desert region to eliminate any possible terrorist hideouts in the area.
Eleven police officers, four conscripts and one sergeant were killed in a shootout while raiding a terrorist hideout in Bahariya Oasis, about 135 kilometres (83 miles) southwest of Cairo. The ministry of interior said that 15 terrorists were killed during the shootout.
A police officer was abducted by terrorists during the shootout but the Egyptian army and police forces managed to rescue Mohamed El-Hayes in a joint operation on 31 October.
Following the shootout, Egyptian security forces launched a number of operations targeting hideouts in the Western Desert area, and reported they had killed numerous terrorists.
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