Police detained senior leaders of Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, in a series of predawn raids on Monday, the group said on its website.
The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in Egypt, but members running as independents won a fifth of seats in the 2005 parliamentary elections, making the group the legislative assembly's largest opposition bloc, DPA reported.
Among those arrested early Monday morning were Mahmoud Ezzat, deputy supreme guide of the group, Essam al-Arian and Abdel-Rahman al-Ber, both members of the group's executive council, the Brotherhood said.
Police also raided the home of Mohi Hamid, another member of the group's executive council, but he was not home at the time, and so avoided arrest, the banned group said.
Abdel-Menem Abdel-Maqsud, the group's lawyer, said that at least a dozen other members had been detained in an apparently coordinated sweep across the country, but that he was still working to verify all the detentions.
Police did not immediately confirm the arrests.
Report: Egyptian opposition leaders held in predawn raids
