14,000 troops sweep Cairo for militants

CAIRO (Reuter) - Up to 14,000 Egyptian police and state security troops swept through a Cairo slum yesterday hunting Muslim militants in the biggest security operation in the capital in recent years. Police were reported to have arrested more than 250 suspects.

The operation began at dawn and was still going on at nightfall. Some 12,000 police and troops from different security services used about 100 armoured cars and seized weapons stockpiles in 38 different locations in the Imbaba district, home to about a million poor Egyptians, Al-Ahram newspaper said.

The area was sealed off for most of the day and truckloads of paramilitary troops were stationed at strategic intersections in the slum. Others scoured its unpaved alleys. Al-Gomhouria newspaper said 88 members of Muslim militant groups had been detained yesterday. Another 170 people were rounded up for questioning.