Two Egyptian officers killed in shooting attack in Sinai

Two Egyptian police officers have reportedly been killed in a shooting attack in the North African country’s restive Sinai Peninsula.

Security sources said Tuesday the two first lieutenants were shot in the head overnight in Arish, the provincial capital and largest city of North Sinai.

The assault is the latest in a series of attacks against Egypt’s security forces in the restive region where Takfiri militants loyal to the Daesh terrorist group are active.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the deadly attack which bore the hallmarks of the Daesh-affiliated Velayat Sinai terror group.

Over the past several years, Egyptian troops have been engaged in efforts to quell rampant militancy across the Sinai Peninsula.

Since September 2015, Egypt’s military has launched a high-scale security operation against the militants’ positions in northern Sinai, following coordinated terrorist attacks on several army checkpoints, which claimed the lives of 21 soldiers in July that year.

SS