CAIRO - An assistant to the Egyptian interior minister was shot dead by unknown gunmen, state-run Ahram website and state TV reported on Tuesday.

Police major general Mohamed Saeed, the head of the minister's technical office, was showered with bullets by unidentified militants near his house in Giza province.

The accident comes amid a surge of attacks by Islamist hardliners against police and army officials following the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi last July.

Interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim survived last September an assassination bid, meanwhile Mohamed Mabruk, a police officer of the National Security Service who was responsible for the Brotherhood file, was killed last November.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a Sinai-based al-Qaida-inspired group claimed responsibility for the recent attacks.