Egypt confiscates weapons smuggled from Libya

CAIRO – Egypt's interior minister says security forces have confiscated a large amount of weapons, including rockets and automatic machine guns, smuggled into the country from neighboring Libya.

Gen. Mohammed Ibrahim says security forces acting on a tip Friday stopped a car and truck packed with munitions on the highway near the Egyptian coastal city of Marsa Matrouh. He says one of the men was killed in an exchange of fire.

Ibrahim described the bust as "the biggest" in the history of Interior Ministry and said the weapons were smuggled from the Libyan city of Sirte.

He says one of the men arrested confessed that the weapons were being taken to the Sinai Peninsula to be smuggled to the Gaza Strip.

Weapons smuggling out of Libya surged after the country's 2011 revolution.