Gunmen kill 8 Egyptian police in Cairo suburb

CAIRO (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on a microbus filled with plainclothes police in a Cairo suburb early Sunday, killing eight of them, including an officer, Egypt's state news agency reported.

MENA said the police were inspecting security in the south Cairo neighborhood of Helwan when four gunmen in a pickup opened fire on them.

Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar ordered an investigation into the attack, calling the eight "heroes of the police martyrs who sacrificed their lives to preserve the security of the homeland and the people."

Insurgents have carried out a wave of attacks, mainly targeting Egyptian security forces, since the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. The attacks have been concentrated in the Sinai Peninsula, where an Islamic State affiliate is based, but militants have also struck the mainland, including in the capital.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.