Roadside blast kills police officer in Egypt’s Sinai

A senior police officer was killed late yesterday in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, according to a statement issued by the interior ministry.

“A security vehicle struck a roadside bomb while passing through the city of Al-Arish in North Sinai,” the statement read.

The attack, it added, had led to the death of Police Colonel Yassir Al-Hadidi and the injury of another police officer and a conscript.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sinai has remained at the epicenter of a deadly militant insurgency since mid-2013, when Egypt’s first freely-elected President Mohamed Morsi was ousted in a military coup.

Since then, hundreds of Egyptian security personnel have been killed in militant attacks across the volatile peninsula.

Egyptian security forces, for their part, continue to wage a fierce campaign – involving elements of both the police and army – against what they describe as Sinai-based “terrorist groups”.