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
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.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press