Two Egyptian officers die in blast targeting Sinai police patrol

Two Egyptian officers were killed and nine others injured in a blast that struck a police patrol in the northern Sinai town of Al Arish.

The state news agency, Mena, reported that the explosion occurred late on Saturday, after police officers shot dead 16 gunmen – most of whom were fugitive militants linked to recent attacks on security forces.

Egypt faces an Islamist insurgency led by ISIL in the Sinai Peninsula, where hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed in unrest since 2013.

Saturday’s attack came a day after at least 23 soldiers were killed when suicide car bombs were detonated at two military checkpoints in the region in an attack claimed by ISIL, one of the bloodiest assaults on security forces in recent years.

The interior ministry said that gunmen had fired at police as they approached a desert training camp for militants in Ismailia.

The officers returned fire, killing 14 militants, five of whom have been identified.

The camp was used to “subject recruits to military training programmes on the use of various types of firearms and manufacture of explosive devices”, the ministry said.

In a separate incident, the ministry said its forces had killed two men described as fugitive terrorists in an exchange of gunfire in the city of Giza. The men, who were in an apartment, fired at security forces as soon as the officers approached to arrest them, it said.

The ministry confirmed the pair were members of a newly emerged militant group called Hasam, which has claimed responsibility for the killing of a homeland security officer outside his home in Qalubiya, a province just north of Cairo, while on his way to prayers on Friday.

Since last year, Hasam has claimed several attacks around Cairo targeting judges and policemen.

Other militant groups, like Hasam, which the government said are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, are active in Cairo and other cities where they have targeted security forces, judges and pro-government figures.

The Brotherhood was banned in 2013 after the military ousted one of its leaders, Mohamed Morsi, from the presidency after protests. It maintains that it is a peaceful organisation.

ISIL has also intensified attacks on security forces and Coptic Christian civilians on the mainland in recent months, killing about 100 Copts since December.