UPDATED: Bomb kills policeman in Egypt's North Sinai

Ahram Online , Thursday 16 Apr 2015

Sheikh Zuweid
Egyptian Army soldiers patrol in an armored vehicle backed by a helicopter gunship during a sweep through villages in Sheikh Zuweyid, North Sinai (Photo: Reuters)

A policeman was killed and another injured when an improvised explosive devise (IED) hit an armoured vehicle in Egypt's North Sinai city of Sheikh Zuweid, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported. 

Unidentified assailants planted the IED on the road and it exploded as the vehicle passed near it, Aswat Masriya reported.

The injured were taken to Al-Arish Military Hospital.

Three days ago in the same city a first lieutenant, a sergeant and four conscripts were killed when their armoured vehicle was also hit by an IED. Two other soldiers were also injured when the roadside bomb exploded on the Al-Arish to Sheikh Zuweid highway.

Egypt's army has been fighting a decade-long militant Islamist insurgency that has spiked since the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in summer 2013.

Hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed in militant attacks.

Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, an Islamist militant group, has claimed many of the attacks against the army and police in Sinai. In November 2014, the group swore allegiance to the Islamic State, which has taken over vast areas of Syria and Iraq and now operates in Libya.

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