CAIRO - Egyptian security forces yesterday set up roadblocks and combed sugar cane fields in the southern Qena province in an operation to hunt down suspected Muslim militants who massacred 13 people in a random street shooting.
"It was a total surprise. We still don't know why it happened," a police officer said by telephone from Nag Hammadi town, near the hamlet of Ezbet Dawoud and about 450 km (280 miles) south of Cairo. He said police were inspecting the scene of the shooting in Ezbet Dawoud.