Cairo, 5 Nov. (AKI) - Egyptian authorities have arrested 17 suspected Islamist militants accused of being part of an illegal Jihadi organisation. According to the Arab TV network, al-Arabiya, the suspects were arrested with arms and explosives that were to be used in a series of planned terror attacks.

The alleged militants were arrested in the area of Dakhiliya, in the Nile delta.

Police found an arms cache at the home of one member of the group in the village of Mait Ghamar, while other items were found in a house of another suspect in the city of Mansoura.

The house was believed to have been used as a location for meetings of the same illegal group allegedly responsible for the assassination of the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat during a military parade in 1981.

Police claimed to have found flyers supporting Islamic jihad in three areas in the Nile delta.