3 police killed, 8 injured in Egypt's Sinai attack

At least three police conscripts men were killed and eight others injured on Tuesday as unknown militants targeted their convoy in Egypt's restive North Sinai province, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said.

"As a security convoy in Sheikh Zeweid city was moving, unknown assailants targeted one of its vehicles by a rocket-propelled grenade, which killed three conscripts and wounded eight others," said the ministry's statement.

Egypt has been facing growing anti-government terror attacks since the military overthrew former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 and later blacklisted his Muslim Brotherhood group.

Earlier in March, at least 15 policemen were killed in a mortar attack on a police checkpoint in Arish city of North Sinai.

Most of the terrorist attacks nationwide are claimed by a Sinai-based group loyal to the regional Islamic State (IS) militant group.

In response, the security forces have been launching massive anti-terror operations in the peninsula over the past three years, which killed about 1,000 militants so far and arrested a similar number of suspects.

The security raids in Sinai are part of the country's "war against terrorism" declared by then-military chief and now President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi following the fall of Morsi.

Source: XINHUA