CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian officials say the director of the powerful military intelligence agency has been replaced by his deputy.

They said Sunday that the new head of the agency, Maj-Gen. Khaled Megawer, a career soldier who commanded the 2nd Army and served as military attache in Washington.

The outgoing director, Maj-Gen. Mohammed Farag el-Shahat, was named an assistant to the defense minister.

Appointments in the Egyptian military are made by the defense minister and ratified by the president, who is the supreme commander of the armed forces.

General-turned-president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi led the military intelligence before he was named defense minister in 2012. A year later, he led the military's ouster of a freely elected but divisive Islamist president amid street protests against his one-year rule. He was elected president a year later.