Egypt policeman killed, another wounded in shooting

CAIRO — A policeman was killed and another seriously wounded in northern Egypt on Monday when gunmen in a parked car fired at patrolling officers, a security official said.

The two policemen were on patrol in the Nile Delta province of Gharbia when they approached a car parked at the side of a road, the official said.

The car’s occupants then opened fire on the officers before escaping, he said.

Jihadist groups have regularly launched attacks on police and soldiers since the overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July last year by former army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, now president of Egypt.

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The attackers claim to be seeking reprisal for the bloody crackdown launched by Sissi which has left more than 1,400 people dead, with 15,000 arrested.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters have been sentenced to death in trials condemned by the international community and NGOs, though none have yet been executed.

Attacks initially centered on the desert peninsular of Sinai but have spread to the Nile Delta region and to Cairo.

The government puts deaths from such incidents at around 500, almost all of them police and soldiers.

Two jihadist groups have claimed the most spectacular attacks of recent months: Al Qaeda-inspired Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem), based in Sinai, and Cairo-focused Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt).