Counterterror officer in Sinai gunned down

Combatants have stepped up attacks amid a breakdown in law and order in the peninsula following 2011 Egypt uprising

9 June 2013, 4:46 pm

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An Egyptian security outpost in the northern Sinai Peninsula, near the Israeli border (photo credit: Moshe Shai/Flash90)

CAIRO (AP) —Egyptian security officials say suspected militants have shot dead a counterterrorism police officer in the Sinai Peninsula.

Officials said Maj. Mohammed Abdelaziz, 30, was killed Sunday in the town of el-Arish on the Mediterranean. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

They had few other details of the shooting. Abdelaziz was a member of the counter-terrorism department in the national internal security agency.

Militants have stepped up attacks amid a breakdown in law and order in the Sinai following the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Last month, seven security personnel were abducted by militants outside el-Arish. They were later freed by their abductors. Last year, suspected militants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers near the border with Gaza and Israel.