News / Egypt

Roadside bomb attacks kills policeman, injures 2 in Sinai

Thursday, 24 December 2015 2:50 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 24 December 2015 2:49 PM ]

Egyptian residents and emergency personnel gather at the site of a car bomb explosion that targeted a police station in North Sinai’s provincial capital of el-Arish, April 12, 2015. ©AFP

At least one policeman has been killed and two others injured in a roadside bomb attack targeting an armored vehicle near a town in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry said in a statement that the incident occurred on Thursday on a road leading to North Sinai’s provincial capital el-Arish as the victims were on their way to Ismailia in the Suez Canal area.

The dead policeman was identified by the Interior Ministry as Captain Hesham Abbas.

The two wounded policemen, a sergeant and a conscript, were reportedly transferred to a military hospital in el-Arish, with no report on their condition.

No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the act of violence, but such assaults are usually blamed on the Daesh-affiliated militants operating in Sinai.

Security forces have launched an investigation into the attack.

In a similar incident on October 6, at least three policemen were injured, one of them seriously, when a remote-controlled bomb struck their armored vehicle in el-Arish.

The Egyptian military has been engaged in operations to quell acts of terrorism and militancy in the Sinai Peninsula. It views the volatile region as a sanctuary for extremists, who use it as a safe haven.

The militant group Velayat Sinai, previously known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks in Sinai. Last November, the group pledged allegiance to the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, which is mainly operating in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

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