Two police officers were shot dead Friday afternoon in Northern Sinai by unidentified assailants. According to state-run Al-Ahram, the officers, Colonel Mohamed Salmi and Colonel Amr Fathi, were killed by gunmen in Sheikh Zuweid by gunmen who were able to evade capture. The Ministry of Interior was unwilling to comment on the killings. Over 500 security personnel have been killed since the popular 2011 uprising that swept former president Hosni Mubarak from office. Violence has spiked since former president Mohamed Morsi was ousted on 3 July 2013. Attacks on security forces in the largely lawless Sinai have become increasingly common. On 18 July, a policeman was shot dead near his house in Al-Arish. On 13 July, rocket attacks in the northern Sinai town of Al-Arish killed one security officer and seven civilians. Two weeks earlier, on 29 June, four police officers were shot dead in the Sinai, killed when militants stopped their bus. This event bore similarities to a 19 August 2013 incident where militants stopped a number of buses transporting police conscripts and executed 25 of them in the Sinai town of Rafah. On Saturday, militants staged a daring attack on the Al-Farafra checkpoint on the Egyptian border with Libya, killing 22 border guards. Military spokesman Brigadier General Mohamed Samir said that the attack was carried out by 20 armed men in vehicles armed with explosives. Ongoing investigations are taking place into the Al-Farafra attack as well.
