CAIRO (AFP) -- Egyptian police arrested 16 leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood Friday, including two of the opposition movement's most senior figures, a source in the security forces said.

Essam al-Aryan and Mahmoud Hussein were arrested in the home of another Brotherhood member, Nabil Mokbal, in the Cairo neighborhood of Guizeh, the source said.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which describes itself as a moderate Islamic organization that wants to bring Islamic law to Egypt, has been outlawed since 1954.
The group has more than a fifth of the seats in Egypt's parliament, but its representatives sit as independents because of its illegal status.
""This is yet another hard blow for us,"" the organization's number two leader, Mohammed Habib, told AFP in confirming the arrests.
Aryan is one of the 10 members of the Brotherhood's political bureau, while Hussein sits on the 10-member Orientation Council, the group's other major leadership organ.
Set to appear Saturday before a prosecutor along with the other 14 persons arrested, they stand accused of belonging to an banned organization, possession of illegal documents, and holding a meeting to plan illicit activities.
The group, which published a list of those arrested on its website, said that the gathering in question was only ""a routine meeting.""
Aryan, a doctor who often serves as spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, was detained for a total of several months in 2005 and 2006.
Part of the organization's new generation of leadership, he was prevented Friday from going to Istanbul as part of a trip sponsored by a doctors' union run by the Brotherhood.
The group made a stunning breakthrough into politics in the legislative elections of November and December 2005. Running as independents, Muslim Brotherhood members carried 88 of 454 seats in the national parliament.
The arrests Friday come at the same time as 40 other members -- mainly businessmen -- are being tried in a military tribunal for financing a banned organization and money laundering.
A hearing earlier this month took place on a military base behind closed doors despite protests by rights groups barred from attending the politically charged trial, set to resume Sunday.
Amnesty International has called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to allow independent observers to witness the proceedings. The defendants -- including the Brotherhood's number three leader, Khayrat al-Shater -- could face the death penalty, if convicted.