• As Military cadets killed in Kabul minibus suicide bombing

At least 54 policemen, including 20 officers and 34 conscripts, were killed when a raid on a militant hideout southwest of Cairo was ambushed, officials said Saturday. The ensuing firefight was one of the deadliest for Egyptian security forces in recent years.

Two police officials told The Associated Press that the exchange of fire began late Friday in the al-Wahat al-Bahriya area in Giza province, about 135 kilometers (84 miles) southwest of Cairo.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

The firefight began when security forces acting on intelligence moved against a militants’ hideout in the area. Backed by armored personnel carriers and led by senior counterterrorism officers, the police contingent drew fire and rocket-propelled grenades, according to the officials.

The officials said what happened next is not clear, but added that the force likely ran out of ammunition and that the militants captured several policemen and later killed them.

The officials said the police force appeared to have fallen into a carefully planned ambush set up by the militants. The death toll could increase, they added.

Those killed included two police brigadier-generals, a colonel and 10 lieutenant colonels.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, announced a much lower death toll, saying in a statement read over state television that 16 were killed in the shootout. It added that 15 militants were killed or injured.

The last time Egypt’s security forces suffered such a heavy loss of life was in July 2015 when militants from the extremist Islamic State group carried out a series of coordinated attacks, including suicide bombings, against army and police positions in the Sinai peninsula, killing at least 50. However, the army said only 17 soldiers and over 100 militants were killed.

An official statement issued Saturday said Friday’s incident would be investigated, suggesting that the heavy death toll may have been partially caused by incompetence, intelligence failures or lack of coordination. The officials said prosecutors will look into whether the police’s counterterrorism agents failed to inform the military of the operation or include them.

Two audio recordings purportedly by policemen who took part in the operation circulated online late Friday. One policeman, apparently using a two-way radio, was heard in the nearly two-minute recording pleading for help from a higher-ranking officer.

“We are the only ones injured, sir,” the policeman said. “We were 10 but three were killed. After their injury, they bled to death, sir.”

“They took all the weapons and ammunition,” he added, “We are now at the foot of a mountain.”

The second recording was purportedly by a policeman warning others. “I can’t identify any direction. Only planes can see us. Take care every one,” he was heard saying, adding that militants were pursuing them.

The authenticity of the recordings could not be immediately verified.

In the meantime, at least 15 military cadets have been killed in a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghan officials say, bringing the death toll of a week of attacks by various militant groups to around 200.

Defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said four others were wounded in the explosion at the gates of Marshal Fahim military academy, as they were leaving by minibus.

The bomber was on foot.

The Taliban have said they carried out the attack.

It was the second suicide attack in the city in 24 hours.

On Friday, 56 people were killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack at a Shia Muslim mosque, claimed by the Islamic State group.

The Sunni Muslim group did not provide evidence for its claim but it has attacked Shia mosques before.

Separately on Friday, 20 people were killed in an attack on a Sunni Muslim mosque in Ghor province. It is not clear who carried out that attack.

Afghanistan has seen a spate of suicide attacks and bombings in recent months. The country’s army and police have suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the Taliban, a Sunni group who want to re-impose their strict version of Islamic law in the country.

The BBC’s South Asia editor Ethirajan Anbarasan says attacks from the Taliban and other groups seem to have intensified since US President Donald Trump announced his new Afghan strategy.

After Mr Trump committed US troops to the country, the Taliban said they would turn Afghanistan into a “graveyard” for American soldiers.

MSN with additional report from BBC