CAIRO: A 13-year-old boy was shot dead on Wednesday in southern Egypt in clashes between police and supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, a health official said.

And in Qalubiya province, north of Cairo, two Egyptian soldiers were killed in a shootout with militants, the Interior Ministry said, adding six militants were killed and eight arrested in a raid on a weapons storage facility.

Political violence, which has dogged Egypt since a popular uprising toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, is expected to intensify as the country prepares for a presidential election, due in a few months, that army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win easily.

The Interior Ministry said a brigadier general and a colonel, both bomb disposal experts, were shot dead in the raid on members of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, Egypt's most active militant group. The Sinai-based group has claimed responsibility for several high-profile attacks, including an assassination attempt on the interior minister last year.