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Masked gunmen shot and killed two police sergeants in Arish, North Sinai, on Wednesday, a security source has said. The assailants shot the men in the head and chest as they were walking to work on a street in central Arish.
The Sinai peninsula had seen recurrent deadly attacks against army and police troops since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Most of the attacks have been claimed by Islamic State affiliate, the Sinai Province.
Egypt’s security forces have come under regular attack since the military ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi two years ago.
In Wednesday’s attack in El-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province, “unidentified assailants on a motorbike opened fire on two police, who died of their wounds”, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The attackers managed to escape, according to security officials.
The Egyptian affiliate of ISIS, which calls itself Sinai Province, said it was responsible and posted photographs of the purported attack and its aftermath online.
The government says hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed in attacks in the past two years, many of which were claimed by ISIS’s Egyptian affiliate.
The jihadists say their attacks are in response to a crackdown launched by the authorities after Morsi’s ouster that has seen at least 1 400 people killed and thousands more jailed.
