A senior police officer was killed early Thursday in a shootout with unknown armed assailants in the canal city of Suez, state news agency MENA reported, the latest in an ongoing series of attacks against security forces.
Security forces exchanged fire at Thursday dawn with gunmen targeting their checkpoint in the east of the city. A senior officer and one of the gunmen were killed in the gunfight.
Security forces have been targeted by bombings and shootings reportedly carried out by Islamists since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and a subsequent government crackdown on his supporters.
Hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed in the past 18 months.
The deadliest attacks against security forces have taken place in the northern part of the border Sinai region, a hotbed of Islamist militancy. Small-scale bombings, which target police as well as economic installations, have become a regular occurrence in Cairo and other mainland cities.
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