2 police officers, Nour Party candidate killed in North Sinai

A roadside bomb targeting an armored vehicle killed two police officers and injured at least nine people on Saturday, the BBC reported.

The vehicle was bombed while driving down the ring road in southern Arish.

Meanwhile, the only parliamentary candidate for the Salafi Nour Party in North Sinai was shot dead on Saturday by unknown assailants in Arish, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

Police and military forces have been the target of similar attacks recently, as security forces announced the start of the second stage of an intensified military operation meant to annihilate terrorism in the area, dubbed Operation Martyr's Rights.

The military announced on Thursday that the second phase of the operation had begun, with the objective of developing the peninsula after the first phase succeeded in getting rid of most of the terrorist presence in Sinai, Aswat Masreya reported.

In a press conference on Thursday, the Armed Forces also announced  that a 500-meter deep trench has been created in the buffer zone between Gaza and Rafah, and that the military intends to increase it to one kilometer.

The military announced the success of the first phase of Operation Martyr's Rights in September after 16 days in which, according to the tallies released by the Armed Forces, 526 alleged terrorists were killed and 617 were arrested.