Unknown assailants on Sunday shot dead a civilian in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula, where the army has been fighting a burgeoning insurgency, security sources told Reuters' Aswat Masriya. Armed gunmen opened fire upon the man while he was heading to his workplace in the North Sinai town of Al-Arish and then fled the scene. Security forces were combing the area in search of the perpetrators at the time of the report. Egypt has been hit by an upsurge in militant attacks by Sinai-based fighters since the army ousted elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last summer following mass protests against his one-year rule. Militant violence has mainly targeted police and troops but has also led to civilian casualties. Several radical groups have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks which they say are carried out in retaliation for the killing and arrest of Islamists in a state crackdown following Morsi's ouster. On Saturday, a security officer was shot by "smugglers" near the international borders in southern Sinai, state news agency MENA said. Late last week, four decapitated bodies were found by residents of the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuwaid, an attack security sources blamed on Islamist militants waging an insurgency in the underdeveloped region. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/109119.aspx
