Gunmen kill Egyptian police officers in Giza attack

Interior ministry says a colonel and conscript on their way to work in Giza were killed by unknown armed men.

A soldier keeps guard outside a school used as a polling station during the second round of parliamentary elections at Shubra Al Khaymah in Qalyubiyah governorate near Cairo, Egypt
Egyptian security forces face regular attacks by Sinai-based groups including ISIL's local affiliate [Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters]

Gunmen have shot dead two Egyptian police officers in the southern outskirts of the capital Cairo, the latest deadly attack on the country’s security forces. 

Egypt in ‘a state of war’?

Police colonel Ali Ahmed Fahmy and conscript Ramadan al-Burhami were killed as they made their way to work in Giza’s Shabramant district, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Saturday.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in a statement posted on messaging service, Telegram, the Reuters news agency reported.

Saturday’s attack comes just two days after a man opened fire on a bus carrying Arab citizens of Israel outside a Cairo hotel.

No one was hurt in the attack, which was also claimed by ISIL in a statement published on social media.

ISIL attacks

Egyptian security forces have been the target of attacks by armed groups since the January 2011 popular uprising that brought down former president Hosni Mubarak. 

The attacks have become more frequent since the removal of Egypt’s first freely-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, by the military in July 2013.

Although armed groups, such as the ISIL-affiliate “Sinai Province”, operate predominantly in the Sinai Peninsula, they have carried out attacks on the Egyptian mainland.

In November, masked gunmen killed four police officers in Giza in an attack later claimed by ISIL.


READ MORE: Egypt armed group pledges allegiance to ISIL


Earlier in October, ISIL claimed responsibility for bringing down a Russian Metrojet airliner that crashed shortly after take-off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

Russian and Western authorities concluded the plane was likely brought down by an explosive but Egyptian authorities rejected the claims. 

Giza is Egypt’s third largest city after Cairo and Alexandria. It is located immediately adjacent to Cairo on the western bank of the Nile.

ISIL posts ‘bomb’ photo alleging it downed airliner

Source: Al Jazeera