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Has IS reached the heart of Cairo?

A May 8 attack that killed eight policemen in southern Cairo has sparked fears that the terror group has reached the city's capital, but questions remain about the culprits.
A picture taken in the early hours of May 8, 2016, shows a damaged vehicle following a gun attack on Egyptian policemen in Cairo's southern outskirts.

The interior ministry said four assailants in a truck intercepted a van carrying the policemen in the district of Helwan, just south of Cairo, and sprayed them with automatic rifle fire. It said those killed in the shooting overnight included a lieutenant and seven lower ranking policemen who had been on patrol in plain clothing. In a statement circulated on

On May 8, eight Egyptian policemen were killed in an attack by masked gunmen who opened fire on them in the Helwan district of southern Cairo.

In a statement published on its official Facebook page the same day, Egypt’s Ministry of Interior said that the policemen had been on a mission at the time of their death. Dressed in civilian clothes, they took the microbus. A truck intercepted them as they were moving along the Nile Corniche area. Four unidentified men who were hiding in the truck stepped down from the vehicle, opened fire on the policemen and fled.

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