IT WAS as whether the militants knew they were coming. When the Egyptian police drove into the desert 135km (84 miles) south-west of Cairo on October 20th,toward a suspected terrorist hideout, their convoy was met with a barrage of gunfire and rockets. In the ensuing firefight some officers ran out of ammunition, and were captured and killed. Others fled and spent hours lost in the desert. It was the deadliest shoot-out in more than two years.
The government’s response,as ever, was to obfuscate (confuse, obscure). The interior ministry kept silent for a day, and then said 16 officers had been killed. In private officials said the death toll was much higher—above 50. Local websites published lists of victims that included names not on the official rolls. The government has not tried to explain the discrepancy,nor has it identified the culprits.
A week later Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the president, and did a late-night housecleaning of the security services. He fired a dozen top police officials and,unexpectedly, sacked the army chief, or Mahmoud Hegazy....
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Source: economist.com