At least 21 policemen were injured on Thursday when a bomb went off in northeastern Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula, according to the Health Ministry.
“Twenty-one policemen were injured when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb,” ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar told Anadolu Agency, adding that the incident had occurred in the North Sinai city of Arish.
A spokesman for Egypt’s Interior Ministry had said earlier that a total of 18 policemen had been hurt in the blast.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Last week, militants said to be linked to Daesh staged a series of coordinated attacks on security checkpoints in northern Sinai that left at least 17 soldiers dead.
Since mid-2013, when Egypt’s military ousted Mohamed Morsi – Egypt’s first freely elected president – the northern Sinai Peninsula has become the epicenter of a deadly insurgency against Egyptian security personnel.
For the last two years, Egyptian security forces have waged a fierce campaign against militants in the volatile peninsula, which shares borders with both Israel and the blockaded Gaza Strip.
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