Gunmen shot and killed policeman Ahmed Farooq Zeidan during a security raid aimed at combating arms smugglers in Sohag on Tuesday. The policeman, from the Dar El-Salaam police station, was patrolling the mountainous area when two men on a motorcycle opened fire, fatally wounding the police captain. An exchange of gunfire ensued between police and the assailants killing Mohamed Gaidy, who was allegedly wanted for involvement in 18 cases of kidnapping and robbery. Another man, Abdu Mohamed Ahmed, was later arrested and found in possession of two automatic firearms and a large quantity of ammunition, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Interior. More than five hundred police officers have been killed since the 2011 uprising that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak. Attacks targeting security officials have been on the rise since 14 August 2013, when security forces violently dispersed pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza, leading to the deaths of over 900 protesters, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. Reprisal attacks across the country, especially in rural Upper Egypt and the Sinai peninsula, targeted police stations, police officers, and military forces. On 12 September, a police sergeant and a passerby were shot down shortly after an explosion at the police club wounded several officers. In Mohamed Morsi's hometown of Zagazig, however, drive-by assassinations of police officers have led to over a dozen fatalities, both of officers and at times passers-by. In February, Sharqeya governorate saw four attacks on security officials in three days.
