Islamic State claims responsibility for killing of Egyptian general

An Egyptian general has been killed by militants near his home in North Sinai, the military has said, the second soldier of his rank to be shot dead in as many weeks.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, in which gunmen opened fire on Brig Gen Hesham Mahmoud Abualazm from a moving car in Arish city, North Sinai’s provincial capital.

Abualazm, 47, died instantly. He was on a visit to Arish, where he owned a house, and did not serve in Sinai, security sources said.

Isis claimed responsibility via its news agency, Amaq.

Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed in an Islamist insurgency led by the jihadi group in the rugged and thinly populated Sinai peninsula.

Attacks have been stepped up since the military overthrew President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement, in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule.

Read More- The Guardian

Image courtesy of Reuters