Egyptian forces shot dead two militants from the Hasam group, the government said Friday, after the Islamist group claimed to have carried a deadly attack on police.

 

The militants were killed in a shootout in Fayoum province, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Cairo, as the security forces tried to arrest them at a hideout, the interior ministry said in a statement.

 

Hasam, an extremist movement the government accuses of links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, said it targeted a police convoy in the province on Thursday, killing one officer and wounding three others.

 

In its statement, the ministry did not say when the shootout took place, but Hasam appears to be describing the same incident only with different details.

 

The group said none of its members were harmed.

 

The Egyptian government says Hasam is linked to the Brotherhood movement of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was overthrown by the army in 2013.

 

The two militants who were killed were "among the most prominent leaders" of that group, said the interior ministry.

 

The group has previously claimed responsibility for deadly attacks against security forces as well as assassination attempts targeting a pro-government Muslim cleric and Egypt's deputy prosecutor general.