CAIRO, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian army announced on Saturday that its forces killed eight terrorists in the country's Western Desert.
Terrorists were targeted by an airstrike based on reliable information from the intelligence and the national security sector, said military spokesman Tamer al-Refai in a statement.
The terrorist cell was planning to carry out hostile acts aimed at destabilizing the country, according to the statement.
The operation resulted in the destruction of three four-wheel-drive trucks with quantities of weapons and ammunition.
The Egyptian military has been carrying out Operation Sinai 2018, a counter-terrorism campaign since February 2018. The campaign involves land, naval and air forces, as well as the police and border guards nationwide.
Egypt has been facing terrorist activities that killed hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians following the ouster of former Muslim Brotherhood-oriented President Mohamed Morsi in early July 2013 and the later security crackdown on his supporters.
Morsi's Brotherhood group is currently outlawed in Egypt as a terrorist organization.
Most of the terror attacks in Egypt in the past few years were claimed by a Sinai-based group affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group.
