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Militants kill 4 in separate attacks in Egypt\s North Sinai

یکشنبه 94/2/20 , 12:9 ص • ابوالفضل یوسفی و مهدی سرحدی • نظر

People carry the body of a policeman during his funeral in North Sinai

People carry the body of a policeman during his funeral in North Sinai"s provincial capital city of El-Arish, Egypt, April 13, 2015, a

day after he was killed in a bomb attack. © AFP

At least four people have been killed in separate attacks carried out by militants in the restive Egyptian governorate of North Sinai.

According to Egyptian security officials, militants gunned down two policemen in el-Arish, the capital of the governorate, in an overnight attack on Friday.

Later in the day, another policeman and a retired officer were also targeted and killed by militants respectively outside a school and at a market place in the city, the officials added.

Reports also said the exchange of fire between police and Muslim Brotherhood members claimed the lives of a police officer and three members of the banned party in the north of the Egyptian capital city of Cairo.

No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the Sinai attacks. However, such deadly incidents are blamed on the ISIL-affiliated Takfiri terrorists.

ISIL gained a foothold in the African country last November, when Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, an al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group, pledged allegiance to ISIL and changed its name to Velayat Sinai (Sinai Caliphate).

Egyptian residents and emergency personnel gather at the site of a car bomb explosion that targeted a police station in North Sinai"s provincial capital city of el-Arish, April 12, 2015. © AFP

The Sinai Peninsula has long been considered a safe haven for gunmen who use the region as a base for their acts of terror.

Since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt"s former president, in July 2013, gunmen have launched terrorist attacks in Sinai, killing members of Egypt"s security forces.

On January 31, the Sinai-based group killed 30 people and injured dozens in a series of coordinated attacks on the peninsula.

The ISIL Takfiri terrorist group, with members from several Western countries, controls swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, and has been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

FNR/HSN/SS