Report: Sinai gunmen fire on police car, killing three
Three Egyptian policemen die when gunmen fired on their car in al-Arish before escaping, according to security sources; violence follows increasing lawlessness in the Sinai Peninsula.
By REUTERSAn Egyptian soldier on the Israeli border in Sinai 311 (R)(photo credit: Ronen Zvulun / Reuters)
ISMAILIA - Three Egyptian policemen died on Saturday when gunmen fired on their car in the northern Sinai Peninsula city of al-Arish before escaping, security sources said.Two policemen died at the scene of the attack on the suburbs of al-Arish, the administrative center of North Sinai, while one of the other two injured died at the hospital later after the attack, medical and security sources said.A police source said the attackers were probably Islamist militants who Egyptian forces have been hunting - the biggest security crackdown the region near Israel has seen in decades - following the killing of 16 border guards on August 5.The August 5 attack - the deadliest in Sinai since Egypt's 1973 war with Israel - prompted the government to send in hundreds of troops backed by tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters in a joint operation with police to raid militant hideouts, arrest suspects and seize weapons.Security in the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula continued to be a pressing issue in both Egypt and Israel this week, with threats to both countries from the al-Qaida-affiliated Salafist jihadi groups who have found fertile breeding grounds in Sinai since the Egyptian revolution.On Thursday, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party demanded law enforcement authorities move to regain control of security in Sinai – following a week of reports of terrorist activity in the troubled peninsula.Over the past months, al-Qaida-linked groups have conducted a series of deadly terrorist attacks against both Egyptian and Israeli interests on the border, including the September 21 shootout that killed 20-year-old Cpl. Netanel Yahalomi.Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities’ arrest last week of a terror cell in Nasr City suspected to be linked to al-Qaida has heightened fears in both countries that extremists are expanding out of Sinai and into other areas of Egypt.Those fears are also bolstered by increasing efforts by al-Qaida to align itself with extremist Salafist and jihadi elements across the Arab world, including Egypt.Joanna Paraszczuk contributed to this report.
