CAIRO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian police arrested 13 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group over attempts to revive the group's activities and incite anti-state chaos and instability, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
"The group's leaders abroad assigned their affiliates inside the country to revive the group's activities to carry out a plot based on spreading rumors to incite the citizens and urge them to protest, cause a state of chaos and undermine internal stability," the ministry said in the statement.
Six of the group members from the provinces of Sohag and Beheira were arrested during their meeting in Giza to set mechanisms for carrying out and financing the anti-state plots. The other seven were arrested during a similar gathering in Beheira, according to the statement.
The arrested 13 men formed two Brotherhood cells to carry out the said activities on Aug. 14 to mark the fifth anniversary of the security crackdown on two Islamist sit-ins held in Cairo and Giza in support of overthrown Brotherhood-oriented President Mohamed Morsi.
The 2013 security dispersal of the pro-Morsi sit-ins left hundreds dead and thousands arrested.
Morsi was removed by the military in early July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year controversial rule and his currently-blacklisted Brotherhood group.
A few months after Morsi's removal, Egypt labelled the Brotherhood as "a terrorist organization."
Since Morsi's ouster, Egypt has been fighting against a wave of terrorism that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, as well as civilians, with a Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State regional extremist group claiming responsibilities for most of the attacks.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian forces killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's removal.
