CAIRO: Two members of the Muslim Brotherhood were killed in an exchange of gunfire with security forces in the Nile Delta north of Cairo on Friday, the Interior Ministry said.

They were part of a group that had opened fire on police while trying to flee after they were spotted attempting to set alight a checkpoint near the city of Al-Mahalla Al-Kubra. Three others were arrested, the ministry said in a statement.

Attacks on the security forces have become commonplace since the army deposed Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood last July following mass protests against his rule. The state has declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group. The group’s leaders say it remains committed to peaceful activism.

On Thursday, a radical Islamist group, Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, released a video identifying the bomber behind a Dec. 24 suicide attack on a Nile Delta police compound as someone who was shot while protesting in Cairo last year against Mursi’s overthrow.

It is the first time the group has identified one of its bombers as someone who took part in those Brotherhood-led protests.

Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, or supporters of Jerusalem, has claimed responsibility for some of the most devastating attacks since last year. The United States this week designated it as a terrorist organization.