ISIS's Egyptian branch claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed four people and wounded at least 12 in a hotel in North Sinai capital al-Arish Tuesday where judges overseeing a parliamentary election were staying. The statement by the Sinai Province group was circulated by its supporters on Twitter and the encrypted messaging system Telegram. "A brother... seeking martyrdom hit with his car bomb the security force protecting the Swiss (Inn) hotel were 50 judges were staying only to be followed by a lion... who broke into the judges' base with his automatic weapon... then blew up his explosive belt among them," read the statement. The interior ministry said a judge, two policemen and a civilian were killed in the blasts at the Swiss Inn hotel in the town of al-Arish. The first blast was triggered by a suicide car bomber followed by a militant who set off an explosive vest, the ministry said in a statement. A third attacker sneaked inside a hotel room and shot dead the judge, the military said. It said both bombers set off their explosives when police confronted them and traded shots with the attacker wearing the explosives vest. The ISIS statement said only two attackers, whose pictures it published, took part in the assault, adding one of them used an automatic rifle inside the hotel before blowing himself up. Two judges, eight officers and conscripts and two civilians were wounded in the blasts, the interior ministry said. The military said 12 people were wounded, including soldiers and policemen. State television aired footage of shattered hotel windows and a charred limb, and car parts flung into a hotel terrace by the blast.
