By Jake Lippincott
A 45 year-old retired army colonel and head of the Criminal Investigation Branch for western Ismailia, Mohamed Abdel-Salam, was killed on Sunday after a group of masked men opened fire on his car in the canal city of Ismailia.
The assailants, who shot Abdel-Salam in the head and foot, were unidentified and successfully fled. Since the July overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, there has been a string of attacks against police and military figures and installations.
The interim government has sought to blame the violence on supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, but so far, most of the attacks have been claimed by Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, a jihadist group which has been highly critical of the Muslim Brotherhood in the past. The Sinai Peninsula, which is the traditional base of Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, has seen the worst violence; however, other parts of Egypt have witnessed an increasing number of bombings and hit and run shooting attacks.
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has also claimed responsibility for a huge bomb that was detonated in front of the Security Directorate in Cairo on 24 January. The bombing, along with others in Cairo on the same day, killed six people.
