Three “terrorist elements” were killed during a raid in the North Sinai province in northeastern Egypt, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.

The three belong to a group of terrorists who have been plotting to carry out attacks on security forces in North Sinai, the ministry said in a statement.

“Three of the terrorist elements were spotted while riding a motorbike to carry out a terrorist operation. When they felt besieged, they started opening fire at the forces who fired back, which led to killing the three of them,” the statement said.

The security forces found two machine guns, two bombs and ammunition in their possession, according to the statement.

Egypt has been fighting a wave of terrorism that killed hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians since the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 and the massive crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood group, which is currently blacklisted as a terrorist organization.

Most of the attacks were claimed by a Sinai-based terrorist group loyal to the regional terror group Islamic State.