Egypt has replaced the army chief of staff and several top Interior Ministry security officials. The shakeup appears to be in reaction to a deadly militant attack last week.
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Egypt implemented a major shakeup of the security command on Saturday, in an apparent response to the death of at least 16 police in a militant ambush last week.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi replaced General Mahmoud Hegazy with Lieutenant General Mohammed Farid Hegazy as armed forces chief of staff. Given the dominance of the military, the post is one of Egypt's top positions.
Mahmoud Hegazy was named a presidential adviser.
Separately, the Interior Ministry replaced several high-ranking security officials, both nationally and in Giza province.
No reason was provided for the changes.
The move came after an October 20 militant attack killed at least 16 police officers in al-Wahat al-Bahriya area in Giza province, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of Cairo. The ambush raised questions over intelligence and security failures.
Egypt's deadliest terror attacks
The rise of Islamic extremism in and around Egypt since the 1990s has seen a big rise the number of attacks targeting tourists and non-Muslims. DW looks back at some of the most devastating.
Image: picture-alliance/AA
1997 Luxor massacre
Sixty-two tourists were killed at Egypt's Deir el-Bahri archaeological site in Luxor. Six assailants, thought to have been linked to al-Qaida, disguised themselves as members of the security forces and descended on the temple armed with automatic machine guns and knives. Egyptian tourist police and military forces eventually stopped the attackers, who were either killed or committed suicide.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. El-Dakhakhny
2004 Sinai bombings
A series of bomb attacks targeting tourists in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula killed 34 people and injured 171. Most of the casualties were killed after a truck drove into the lobby of the Taba Hilton. Two more bombs went off at campsites some 50 kilometers away, killing a handful of people. Roughly half the casualties were foreigners, including 12 Israelis.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Nabil
2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks
The attack in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh was carried out on Egypt's Revolution Day and for a decade remained the worst Islamist attack in Egypt's history. A series of bombs planted close to bars and restaurants, as well as by a hotel, killed 88 people and injured 150. The majority of victims were locals, although a number of tourists also died, including 11 British nationals.
Image: dpa
2006 Dahab bombings
The attack on the the Egyptian resort city of Dahab marked the third consecutive year that tourist resorts had been targeted. A series of blasts in a restaurant, a café and a market killed at least 23 people, most of whom were local, and wounded around 80. Egyptian officials maintain that the attacks were carried out by the Islamist cell known as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, a forerunner of "IS."
Image: AP
2015 Metrojet Flight 9268 disaster
All 224 mostly Russian passengers were killed when Metrojet Flight 9268 suddenly dropped out of the sky over the Egypt's Sinai peninsula, shortly after having taken off from Sharm el-Sheikh international airport. Authorities agree that it appeared a bomb had been snuck on board. The so-called "Islamic State" jihadi group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Grigoriev
2016 Attacks on Egypt's Coptic Christian minorities
While Egypt's Coptic Christians have for decades been targeted by Islamists, deadly attacks on Coptic churches have increased dramatically in recent months. At least 102 Egyptian Christians have been killed in four separate attacks since December 2016.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/Stringer
2017 Coptic church and Al-Rawda mosque bombings
On April 9, 2017, the Coptic church faith followers encountered devastating twin blasts in Tanta and Alexandria as they celebrated Palm Sunday, killing 28 and 17 people respectively. On November 24, 2017, a bomb went off outside of Al-Rawda mosque in the city of Al-Arish in the northern Sinai Peninsula, which claimed the lives of more than 300 people and injured 109 others.
Image: picture-alliance/AA
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No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the ambush, but Egypt claimed the Muslim Brotherhood offshoot Hasm was behind the attack.
Egyptian security forces have launched operations in the Western Desert in recent days, including one on Friday that killed at least 13 militants. The sparsely populated region is considered a major arms smuggling and militant infiltration route near war-torn Libya.
Egyptian forces have been battling several militant groups, including an "Islamic State" (IS) insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula since Sisi overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Egypt blames the IS and the Muslim Brotherhood for militant attacks that have killed hundreds of police and soldiers.
The Arab world's most populous country has been under a state of emergency since earlier this year when militants carried out a series of deadly attacks on Coptic Christians.