Islamist militants have stepped up attacks on Egyptian soldiers and police since the army toppled president Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

A bomb blast killed six people including three policemen Thursday as a team of officers raided an apartment in the Egyptian capital suspected to be a militant hideout, police said.

The explosion near a road that leads to the site of the ancient Egyptian pyramids in the Cairo suburb of Giza, came ahead of Monday’s anniversary of the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The bomb attack killed three policemen and three others, security sources said. Fifteen people were wounded.

“Six people have been killed in the blast, including three policemen. The others include a civilian and two unidentified men,” a police officer told AFP.

Egyptian police cordoned off the blast site, Al Arabiya’s correspondent reported.

Security officials said the impact of the explosion damaged part of the residential building housing the apartment.

Islamist militants have stepped up attacks on Egyptian soldiers and police since the army toppled president Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. Civilians have also been killed.

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