Militants shoot dead two Egyptian policemen

Militants shot dead two Egyptian policeman in the capital of North Sinai overnight Friday, security officials said.

The gunmen, suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group’s affiliate in Egypt, shot dead the policemen in the town of El-Arish before fleeing in a vehicle, the officials said.

Militants have killed scores of policemen and soldiers in an insurgency in the peninsula since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The main militant group, formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, pledged allegiance to IS, which controls territory in Iraq and Syria, in November last year.

It is based in the north of Sinai but has carried out attacks in Cairo and killed three South Korean tourists in a suicide bombing last year in a south Sinai resort.