Egypt’s interior ministry said a gunman shot dead a police officer in north Sinai in an attack claimed on Monday by the Islāmic State group.
The gunman shot the police major in El-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai, on Sunday night, the ministry said in a statement.
The jihadist group’s Egypt affiliate has waged an insurgency in the peninsula that has killed hundreds of police officer and soldiers.
The group said in a statement circulated on social media that its fighters “assassinated” the major and made off with his car and automatic rifle.
The jihadists have kept up the attacks in Sinai, mostly roadside bombings and ambushes, despite a massive military campaign to uproot IS from the eastern peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
Most of the group’s attacks have targeted security forces, but it has also attacked Egyptian Christians and tourists.
The group claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian airliner carrying holiday makers from an Egyptian resort last year, killing all 224 people on board.
