Cairo (AFP) – Egyptian police have seized dozens of bombs and arrested several people allegedly planning attacks in the country, the interior ministry said on Wednesday, in an apparent crackdown on militants.

The ministry said police found 83 bombs in a car on a highway outside Cairo, and later arrested two men allegedly linked to them.

At a Cairo apartment, they also seized half a kilogramme (one pound) of ball bearings, which can be used in bombs to cause greater damage and injury, and a manual on bomb manufacture.

And they separately arrested two men with electrical circuit boards that could be used in bombs.

The statement, which did not say when the arrests were made, also described an operation last week in which a militant identified as K.A.A died in an explosion during a police raid.

State-run media published contradictory accounts on the man’s identity, with some reporting that he was an Al-Qaeda linked Libyan and another saying he was Tunisian.

The Interior Ministry issued a statement criticising the conflicting accounts, but has not disclosed the man’s identity.

In a related raid, police arrested three suspects, including a Tunisian, and seized a suicide bomb vest, explosives and cell phone detonators, the statement said.