Takfiri group kills senior Egyptian police officer in restive Sinai

A high-ranking Egyptian police officer has been shot dead by a militant group during an attack in the country’s restive Sinai Peninsula.

According to a Monday statement by the Egyptian Interior Ministry, Colonel Hassan Ahmad Rashad was killed in gunfire by an unidentified militant in Arish, the provincial capital and largest city of North Sinai, on Sunday night.

The Takfiri Velayat Sinai terror group later claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on social media, saying its militants "assassinated" the officer and escaped with his car and automatic rifle.

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 2015.

SS