A high-ranking Egyptian police officer was assassinated during the early hours of Sunday when assailants opened fire at him in North Sinai’s Al-Arish, the second high-profile assassination in the north part of the peninsula in less than a week.

Officer Ahmed Mohamed Abdel-Sattar was shot dead in Al-Arish’s Al-Khazan Street, an interior ministry statement read.

No group has claimed responsibility for Abdel-Sattar’s murder yet.

On Wednesday night, assailants shot dead General Khaled Kamal while he was manning a security checkpoint in Al-Arish.

The militant Islamist group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis (ABM) claimed responsibility for Kamal’s death. The group claimed allegiance to the ISIS group last November and is responsible for the majority of attacks on security forces in North Sinai.

Last week, Egypt's army launched a large-scale offensive to root out Islamist insurgents in the region. The army said security forces killed over 370 militants in the operation named Martyr's Right.

A decade-long militant insurgency in North Sinai has spiked in the last two years since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.