Officer shot dead in targeted attack in Arish

A security officer was shot dead in Arish on Monday after being attacked by unidentified gunmen, the state-run Al-Ahram portal reported.

Ramadan Ghoneim Abdel Samad, a low-ranking police officer in the facilities security unit of the North Sinai security directorate, came under fire while on his way to work, an Interior Ministry source told Al-Ahram.

The source said that security forces have sealed off the area and are conducting an investigation into the weapons used during the attack.

Egypt's Armed Forces has recently carried out operations in the area targeting armed groups based in the Sinai Peninsula. Attacks on security forces have meanwhile drastically increased following the removal of former President Mohamed Morsi from power in July last year.

A toll calculated by Al-Ahram last December showed that 164 people had been killed and 592 arrested since July. Tens of others were killed since December. 

In late February, military spokesperson Ahmed Mohamed Ali said that six "takfiri" (fundamentalist) jihadis were killed and 10 others arrested in North Sinai during a raid on al-Lefaytat, a small village in Arish.