Five suspected ISIS terrorists were killed on Monday in a shootout in a southern Egyptian province, police said. The Interior Ministry said in a statement the fighting broke out Monday when police raided a suspected terrorist hideout in the Akhmim district in Sohag province, 390 kilometers (244 miles) south of the capital Cairo. The statement added that police seized weapons during the raid. Egypt, which has been under a state of emergency since April of last year, has been battling terrorist groups for years. Their activity spiked after the 2013 ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi. In February, Egypt launched a nation-wide security operation against the terrorists, focused particularly on the northern Sinai region. The military says that over 250 suspected terrorists and at least 35 soldiers have been killed in the "Sinai 2018" operation.