Egypt’s Interior Ministry said 31 policemen were injured Sunday in clashes with residents of a Nile river island on the southern fringes of Cairo.
A ministry statement said the violence began when police attempted to remove illegal buildings on state land on al-Waraq island. Residents attacked the police with birdshot guns and rocks, it added. The police responded with tear gas.
There was no immediate word available on casualties among residents.
Illegal use of state land is widely common in Egypt, as well as building on agrarian land in violation of the law.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is spearheading a nationwide campaign to end illegal use of state land. Police and army troops have for weeks been daily demolishing buildings or commercial facilities illegally built or operating without a license.
In a separate development, Egypt’s military said its jet fighters destroyed 15 all-terrain vehicles carrying weapons and explosives along with “criminal elements” after they were detected getting ready to cross the Libyan border into Egypt.
A military statement Sunday said the warplanes monitored and “dealt” with the vehicles over the past 24 hours, but it did not say whether the airstrikes targeted them while on Egyptian soil. It also did not mention Libya by name, making only a thinly veiled reference to the North African nation.
Egypt’s porous desert border with Libya has been the source of serious concern to authorities, who contend Islamic militants and smugglers use it as their route into Egypt. It said militants who attacked Christians in a series of suicide bombings in recent months were trained and sponsored by extremists in Libya, where chaos has prevailed since a 2011 uprising that turned into a ruinous civil war.
