Egypt's Interior Ministry said in a statement early Tuesday that police killed two Muslim Brotherhood leaders in a shootout in Cairo.

"61-year-old Mohamed Kamal, a physician, one of the group's top leaders, and another leader Yasser Shehata, both were killed," a ministry statement said.

It said the forces raided an apartment in Cairo's Bassateen neighbourhood after learning it was used by the leaders as headquarters.

Kamal was wanted for more than a dozen of armed attacks and was twice sentenced to life in prison in absentia for establishing an armed group, the statement added.

Shehata was also sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for assaulting a citizen and forcibly detaining him in the headquarters of the Freedom and Justice party, the group's political wing, according to the statement.

The Muslim Brotherhood was labeled as an outlawed group by the government after it launched anti-security attacks in revenge for the killings and detention of its members after the ouster of its leader Mohamed Morsi in 2013, and the arrest of the group leaders.

Source : XINHUA