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Egyptian general assassinated outside his home

October 22, 2016 at 3:54 pm

A senior Egyptian military officer was shot dead outside his home in a Cairo suburb, Reuters reported, citing a security sources.

Brigadier General Adel Ragaei, who commanded an armoured division deployed in the Sinai, died after gunmen shot him dead as he left his home today in the Obour City suburb, Al Jazeera reported his sister-in-law Huda Zein Elabedine as saying.

Armed militants in Egypt have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, mostly in the Sinai Peninsula. However, assassinations of senior military figures are extremely rare, raising concerns in the Egyptian military establishment.

“At 6am (04:00 GMT) they killed him. I can’t tell you if it was six or 12 bullets. It was before he could get into his car,” AFP quoted Elabedine as saying.

Al Jazeera cited media sources as saying Ragaei oversaw the destruction and flooding of tunnels that ran into the Gaza Strip under the Rafah border, which provided a lifeline for residents of the besieged territory.

An armed group called Liwa Al-Thawra claimed the attack, in a message posted on Twitter, AFP reported, but the message has yet to be independently verified.

Egypt has been rocked by instability and insecurity since President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi overthrew Egypt’s first ever democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Armed factions in the Sinai, including Daesh, have been active in fighting the Sisi regime.