Three Egyptian policemen were killed and four others, including a police officer, wounded Friday in an attack in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, security and medical sources said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Two cars approached a checkpoint in a residential neighbourhood of the city and two armed assailants opened fire at the policemen, the security source said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The policemen responded, killing one of the assailants while the other fled.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The source said the attack was likely a “terrorist act”, describing it as the first of its kind in nearly three years in mainland Egypt, which has largely been spared the deadly insurgency in the Sinai peninsula.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Medical sources confirmed the casualty toll from the attack, for which there was no immediate claim of responsibility.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In the past few years, attacks against security forces have been concentrated in the restive Sinai, where jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State group continue to operate.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Eleven soldiers were killed on May 7 in an attack in western Sinai.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Days later, another five soldiers and seven jihadists died when the army was attacked in the peninsula.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Egypt has been battling the insurgency that intensified after the army ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In February 2018, security forces launched a wide-reaching campaign seeking to root out members of jihadist groups in the Sinai and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
More than 1,000 jihadists were reported to have been killed by the military during the campaign, though figures are difficult to verify amid a media blackout in the peninsula.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In May 2019, an attack near Egypt’s Giza pyramids injured 17 people, many of them foreign tourists.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And in August of that year, 20 people were killed when a car laden with explosives crashed into two other vehicles in Cairo.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ismailia is one of the key cities overlooking Egypt’s Suez Canal, a vital waterway between Asia and Europe that sees about 10 percent of the world’s maritime trade.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The canal is a major source of foreign currency for Egypt, which is struggling with a declining currency and rising inflation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three Egyptian policemen were killed and four others, including a police officer, wounded Friday in an attack in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, security and medical sources said.Two cars approached a checkpoint in a residential neighbourhood of the c…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n