EL-ARISH, Egypt — Egyptian security officials say two separate attacks have killed three police conscripts and an officer in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula.

The officials said Wednesday that the first attack took place in the city of el-Arish when an explosive device targeted an armoured vehicle, killing a police officer and two conscripts.

Another explosive device hit an armoured vehicle in the town of Rafah, killing a conscript and wounding four others.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group.

The attacks came a day after an IS suicide bomber killed four policemen and three civilians, including a child, in the northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid. </s> EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) - Suspected militants on Monday ambushed a police convoy in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing five policemen and wounding three others, including a police brigadier-general, according to security and military officials.

The police and military officials said the attack began with the detonation of roadside bombs that destroyed and set ablaze three armored vehicles and a fourth one carrying signal jamming equipment. The gunmen later opened fire with machine guns and commandeered a police pickup truck.

The attack took place about 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of el-Arish in northern Sinai, the epicenter of a long-running insurgency by militants now led by the extremist Islamic State group.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. </s> El-Arish - Egyptian security officials say a roadside bomb planted by suspected Islamic militants has hit a police armoured vehicle in the north of the Sinai peninsula, killing three members of the security forces.

They say the Saturday blast south of the city of el-Arish injured six other policemen.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The attack came two days after Sinai militants killed 10 army soldiers and two policemen in Sinai.

Northern Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip, has long been home to an insurgency by militants, now led by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group. The insurgency expanded and grew deadlier after the 2013 ouster of an Islamist president whose one year in office proved divisive. </s> By The Associated Press

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — Egyptian security officials say two separate attacks overnight have killed three police conscripts and an officer in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula. The officials said Wednesday that the first attack took…

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — Egyptian security officials say two separate attacks overnight have killed three police conscripts and an officer in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula.

The officials said Wednesday that the first attack took place in the city of el-Arish when an explosive device targeted an armored vehicle, killing a police officer and two conscripts.

Another explosive device hit an armored vehicle in the town of Rafah, killing a conscript and wounding four others.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group.

The attacks came a day after an IS suicide bomber killed four policemen and three civilians, including a child, in the northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> By Ashraf Sweilam and Hamza Hendawi Associated Press

EL-ARISH, Egypt – Islamic State militants ambushed a police convoy in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Monday, killing 18 police and wounding seven others in one of the deadliest attacks this year in the restive region bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Police and military officials said roadside bombs destroyed and set ablaze four armored vehicles and a fifth carrying signal-jamming equipment meant to neutralize roadside bombs that are remotely detonated. The gunmen later opened fire with machine guns and commandeered a police pickup truck.

Among those killed were two police lieutenants. The wounded included a police brigadier general, according to the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

The Islamic State group, which is spearheading an insurgency centered in northern Sinai, claimed responsibility for the attack on its Aamaq news agency.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, issued a statement confirming the incident, but its account provided no details on casualty figures or how many vehicles were destroyed.

It said police traveling in the convoy fired at a car that rushed toward them, causing it to blow up and damage several of the convoy’s vehicles. That was followed by an exchange of gunfire with “terrorist elements” hiding in the desert on both sides of the road.

“That led to the martyrdom and wounding of some of the convoy’s personnel,” it cryptically added.

“Reinforcements were swiftly sent, the site has been sealed off and combing operations are underway,” it said.

Egypt’s Cabinet issued a statement in response to the attack, reiterating the country’s resolve to stamp out terrorism and hunt down militants. Again, the statement provided no casualty figures or details of the attack.

The U.S. State Department condemned the attack on Monday. Spokesperson Heather Nauert said the U.S. would “continue to stand with Egypt as it confronts the threat from terrorism.”

Monday’s attack took place on a road on the western fringes of the coastal city of el-Arish in northern Sinai, a rugged region defined by desert, shrubs and mountains. It showed the resilience of the militants in the face of a years-long campaign to eradicate them by the military and police, which between them command far superior firepower, air support, heavy armor and larger numbers.

The attack also suggested that the militants remain capable of carefully planning elaborate and multi-tiered attacks, making full use of the weapons available to them and their knowledge of the local terrain. In a wider context, the militants have been seeking to demoralize troops using snipers, killing at least 14 policemen and soldiers in recent weeks.

They have also been increasingly using brutal methods to discourage civilians from cooperating with the security forces, kidnapping alleged collaborators and later dumping their decapitated bodies on the streets to terrorize the population.

Egypt’s security forces, meanwhile, have succeeded in confining the insurgency to northern Sinai – a remote northeastern corner of the country – and preventing the militants from seizing and holding territory there.

Monday’s attack was the deadliest against security forces since July, when IS militants attacked a remote army outpost in the border town of Rafah, killing 23 soldiers. That was the deadliest attack in two years.

In March, the military said militants killed 10 soldiers during an army raid in Sinai’s central region.

Egypt has battled militants in Sinai for years, but the insurgency became far more deadly after the 2013 military ouster of Mohammed Morsi, an elected Islamist president. It has since waged a number of high-profile attacks on the mainland, including areas near Egypt’s porous desert border with Libya. Egypt maintains that some of the militants attacking its security forces and minority Christians sneak into the country through the Libyan border carrying weapons.

In recent years there has also been a wave of attacks, mainly targeting security forces, blamed on splinter factions of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group.

Monday’s attack came a day after authorities said they had busted a militant cell planning attacks in Cairo. Police said they killed 10 militants in two simultaneous raids on apartments in a densely populated Cairo neighborhood. They said the militants sneaked into the capital from northern Sinai, but did not say whether they were members of the IS group. </s> ISIS militants kill 18 police in attack on convoy in Egypt’s Sinai

EL-ARISH, Egypt — Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants ambushed a police convoy in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Monday, killing 18 police and wounding seven others in one of the deadliest attacks this year in the restive region bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Police and military officials said roadside bombs destroyed and set ablaze four armored vehicles and a fifth carrying signal-jamming equipment meant to neutralize roadside bombs that are remotely detonated. The gunmen later opened fire with machine guns and commandeered a police pickup truck.

Among those killed were two police lieutenants. The wounded included a police brigadier general, according to the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

ISIS, which is spearheading an insurgency centered in northern Sinai, claimed responsibility for the attack on its Amaq news agency. – READ MORE </s> A suicide bomber driving a garbage truck packed with explosives rammed his vehicle into an Egyptian security checkpoint outside a police building in northern Sinai on Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 22, officials said.

According to security and medical officials, the attack in the city of el-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula was followed by smaller explosions as militants wearing black masks fired rocket-propelled grenades at the troops around the checkpoint.

Three floors of the police building were blown out, the officials said, adding that so far, bodies of 10 people — all but one of them policemen — have been retrieved from the rubble but that they fear the death toll could rise further. The wounded were taken to hospital.

At the checkpoint, two officers survived unharmed, the officials said. There were unconfirmed reports that a number of security personnel were seized and abducted by the gunmen.

The garbage truck had been stolen days earlier from the municipality of el-Arish, the officials said, adding that the militants had built in metal plates to enforce the truck. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Later Monday, Egypt's Interior Ministry released footage showing an attacker driving what appears to be a white garbage truck. The video shows the attacker collapsing after coming under fire.

In a statement on the ministry's Facebook page, the security authorities claim they managed to foil the attack before the car bomb exploded at the checkpoint and that security forces killed five of the attackers and wounded three others. It also said seven policemen were killed, along with civilian, and that six policemen and six civilians were wounded.

The ministry also said a second group of militants tried to carry out an attack on another checkpoint, also in el-Arish, but came under heavy gunfire and were forced to flee. It said that attack killed one policeman. It wasn't immediately possible to reconcile the two accounts.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Monday's attack, which bore all the hallmarks of Egypt's Daesh affiliate.

The militant group has carried out scores of attacks against security forces in the volatile northern Sinai and elsewhere in the country. The Egyptian army has struggled over the past few years to contain the insurgency. </s> EL-ARISH, Egypt — A pair of attacks by suspected Islamic militants on Saturday killed four policemen and injured six others in the turbulent north of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, according to security officials, bringing to 16 the number of policemen and soldiers known to have been slain in the area in three days.

They said three policemen were killed when their armored vehicle hit a roadside bomb south of Sinai's coastal city of el-Arish. Six more policemen were injured in that attack.

Later on Saturday, a policeman manning a checkpoint also south of el-Arish was killed by a sniper's bullet, they said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The attacks came two days after Sinai militants killed 10 army soldiers and two policemen in Sinai.

Northern Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip, has long been home to an insurgency by militants, now led by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group. Attacks by militants grew deadlier and more frequent after the 2013 ouster of an Islamist president whose one year in office proved divisive. Mohammed Morsi was ousted by the military, then led by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, following a wave of massive street protests against his one-year rule. </s> EL-ARISH, Egypt — The Latest on an attack on a police convoy in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula (all times local):

The U.S. State Department has said it strongly condemns the attack on a police convoy in the Sinai Peninsula that killed 18 policemen.

The United States, said spokesperson Heather Nauert, would “continue to stand with Egypt as it confronts the threat from terrorism.”

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the ambush.

The northern part of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula has been the epicenter of a long-running insurgency by militants now led by a local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, has issued a statement confirming that militants in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula have ambushed a police convoy, but its account of the incident provided no details on casualty figures or how many vehicles were destroyed.

Egyptian officials say Monday’s ambush left 18 police dead and seven wounded. Four armoured vehicles and a fifth carrying signal-jamming equipment were destroyed while a police pickup truck was commandeered, they said.

The ministry statement said police travelling in the convoy fired at a car that rushed toward them, causing it to blow up and damage several of the convoy’s vehicles. That was followed by an exchange of gunfire with “terrorist elements” hiding in the desert on both sides of the road, according to the statement.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the ambush of a police convoy in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula that Egyptian officials said killed 18 police and wounded seven.

The claim of responsibility for Monday’s attack was carried by the extremist group’s Aamaq news agency.

Egyptian police and military officials said the attack began with roadside bombs that destroyed and set ablaze four armoured vehicles and a fifth one carrying signal jamming equipment. The gunmen later opened fire with machine-guns and commandeered a police pickup truck.

It was the deadliest attack in the northern Sinai in months.

Egyptian officials say the death toll from an attack on a police convoy in the Sinai Peninsula has risen to 18, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the restive area in months.

The police and military officials say Monday’s attack began with the detonation of roadside bombs that destroyed and set ablaze four armoured vehicles and a fifth one carrying signal jamming equipment. The gunmen later opened fire with machine-guns and commandeered a police pickup truck.

Among those killed were two police lieutenants. The wounded included a police brigadier general.

The attack took place about 30 kilometres (nearly 19 miles) west of el-Arish in northern Sinai, the epicenter of a long-running insurgency by militants now led by the extremist Islamic State group.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Egyptian officials say suspected militants have ambushed a police convoy in the Sinai Peninsula, killing two policemen and wounding two others, including a police brigadier-general.

The police and military officials say the Monday attack began with the detonation of roadside bombs that destroyed and set ablaze three armoured vehicles and a fourth one carrying signal jamming equipment. The suspected militants later opened fire with machine-guns.

The attack took place about 30 kilometres (20 miles) west of el-Arish in northern Sinai, the epicenter of a long-running insurgency by militants now led by the extremist Islamic State group.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
A two stage attack targeting police kills 5 officers and wounds 11 in the city of el-Arish. A later roadside bomb south of the city wounds a further 6 officers.