Militants wounded an Egyptian police general and three other officers in an attack on their patrol in the Sinai Peninsula late on Monday, security officials said.
“Gunmen ambushed and opened fire on a police patrol carrying the deputy security chief for South Sinai, General Hatem Amin, as they pursued militants in Wadi Firan,” the security sources said. The general and three others were wounded in the attack, they added.
Egypt began an unprecedented military operation in the peninsula last month after militants killed 16 Egyptian border police in North Sinai in an August 5 attack.
The government has long struggled with militancy and smuggling in the region but its authority took a further battering early last year when an uprising overthrew veteran president Hosni Mubarak, prompting the collapse of his discredited police force.
