News / Egypt

Two Egyptian officers killed in shooting attack in Sinai

Tuesday, 23 August 2016 9:59 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 23 August 2016 9:59 AM ]

Emergency personnel and security forces stand next to ambulances outside the Swiss Inn hotel in the Egyptian city of Arish, Sinai Peninsula, following an attack on the hotel, November 24, 2015. ©AFP

Two Egyptian police officers have reportedly been killed in a shooting attack in the North African country’s restive Sinai Peninsula.

Security sources said Tuesday the two first lieutenants were shot in the head overnight in Arish, the provincial capital and largest city of North Sinai.

The assault is the latest in a series of attacks against Egypt’s security forces in the restive region where Takfiri militants loyal to the Daesh terrorist group are active.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the deadly attack which bore the hallmarks of the Daesh-affiliated Velayat Sinai terror group.

Over the past several years, Egyptian troops have been engaged in efforts to quell rampant militancy across the Sinai Peninsula.

Since September 2015, Egypt’s military has launched a high-scale security operation against the militants’ positions in northern Sinai, following coordinated terrorist attacks on several army checkpoints, which claimed the lives of 21 soldiers in July that year.

The military’s anti-terror battle has led to the deaths of hundreds of troops and militants, including those with the Takfiri Velayat Sinai group.

Previously known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, the Velayat Sinai group has claimed responsibility for most of the fatal attacks mainly targeting the army and police in the capital, Cairo, and the volatile Sinai Peninsula.

The Velayat Sinai militants have taken advantage of the turmoil in Egypt caused by the 2013 ouster of the first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, to boost their militancy.

The Sinai desert region has been under a state of emergency since October 2014, following a deadly terrorist raid that left 33 Egyptian soldiers dead.

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