News / Egypt

Bombing kills two Egypitan policemen in Sinai

Monday, 07 March 2016 4:37 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 07 March 2016 4:36 PM ]

Egyptian army special forces man a temporary checkpoint outside Sharm el-Sheikh airport on November 11, 2015. (AFP photo)

A roadside bombing has claimed the lives of at least two Egyptian policemen in the restive Sinai Peninsula, Egypt’s Interior Ministry says.

The ministry said in a statement on Monday that the bomb exploded close to an armored vehicle on a highway near the North Sinai provincial town of El-Arish.

The Monday blast is the latest in a string of attacks against security forces across the troubled region.

No individual or militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, but some local sources said that militants loyal to the Daesh terror group were most likely behind the attack.

This came a day after gunmen shot dead a medic and two members of Egypt’s security forces who had been wounded in a bombing attack and were in an ambulance en route to a hospital in the northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid, located about 334 kilometers (207 miles) northeast of the capital, Cairo.

Also in early March, an Egyptian man was beheaded and his teenage son shot dead in El-Arish.

A member of the Egyptian security forces stands guard next to a damaged bus following a roadside bomb blast which wounded 20 Egyptian policemen on the outskirts of the northern Sinai's provincial capital of El-Arish on July 9, 2015. (AFP photo)

The Sinai Peninsula has been under a state of emergency since October 2014, following a deadly terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 33 soldiers.

Over the past years, militants have been carrying out anti-government activities and deadly attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil caused in Egypt after democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013.

Militants from the Takfiri Velayat Sinai group, previously known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, mainly targeting the army and police. In November 2014, the group pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is wreaking havoc mainly in Iraq and Syria.

The government in Cairo views the volatile Sinai Peninsula as a safe haven for terrorists.

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