An Egyptian army brigadier general and a colonel were killed on Wednesday in a shootout with Islamist militants, security sources said Al Arabiya reported.
The exchange of gunfire erupted after the army officers tried to storm a militant safehouse where the men were hiding in Qalubiya province north of Cairo, the sources said.
Five jihadists with the al-Qaeda-inspired Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group also died in what was an hours-long shootout north of Cairo, the interior ministry said.