Gunman attacked and killed at least eight police officials in a Cairo suburb, officials announced in the early hours of Sunday. The officers were all travelling in a police vehicle in Helwan, just south of the capital, when the assault occurred, AP reported. The Interior Ministry says four gunmen with automatic weapons jumped out of a pickup truck, sprayed the police vehicle and then fled. Witnesses claim the assailants wore masks. There was no immediate claim for the attack but Egypt is in the grips of an insurgency that has killed hundreds of military personnel and police over the past three years. The violence began in mid-2013 after then-army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi toppled president Mohammed Morsi, amid protests against his rule. Most of the militants’ deadly attacks occur in the northern Sinai Peninsula, but rebels have also hit security forces and planted bombs in Cairo and other cities beyond the Sinai.
