Egyptian police raided a house south of Cairo on Sunday and killed four "terrorists" accused of carrying out attacks against the security forces, the interior ministry said.

Since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, jihadists have regularly attacked members of the security forces, mostly in the Sinai Peninsula but also in Cairo and the Nile Delta.

"The four terrorists were killed when police raided their hideout where they were manufacturing explosives" in a village south of the capital, a ministry statement said.

"During the raid the police team came under fire from the terrorists, and in the ensuing gunfight the four were killed."

They had been involved in "assassinating a soldier and two policemen" in separate attacks on the outskirts of Cairo, the ministry added.

It said the four were linked to Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt), a militant group that said it was behind several attacks on police in Cairo after Morsi's ouster.

Officials say hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed since 2013 in jihadist attacks, mainly in the Sinai where an Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group is spearheading an insurgency.
Source: AFP