Two Egyptian police officers were killed defusing bombs near the presidential palace in Cairo Monday, almost a year to the day after a military takeover unleashed a wave of repression and militant attacks.

Two Egyptian police officers were killed defusing bombs near the presidential palace in Cairo Monday, almost a year to the day after a military takeover unleashed a wave of repression and militant attacks.

An extrremists militant group, one of several that have spearheaded attacks since president Mohammad Mursi's ouster on July 3 last year, warned several days ago that it had planted bombs in the vicinity of the east Cairo palace.

It was not immediately clear whether Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who ousted the Mursi and then won a May presidential election, was in the Ittihadiya palace at the time.

The interior ministry said a colonel was killed and several policemen were wounded when a bomb they were trying to defuse went off.

Later, as policemen cordoned the area and tried to defuse another explosive, it went off killing a lieutenant colonel and wounding several officers, said police officials and AFP journalists on the scene.

A statement by a militant group saying it had planted bombs near the palace suggested the militants still have the ability to strike heavily guarded installations.

"God has allowed our heroic soldiers to penetrate the fortifications of the mass murderer's lair in Ittihadiya palace" to plant bombs, the militant Ajnad Misr group said in a Friday statement, referring to Sisi.