(Cairo) Gunmen on Friday killed three policemen and injured four in an attack on a security checkpoint in the town of Ismailiya on the Suez Canal in Egypt, security and medical sources said.
Security sources spoke of a “terrorist attack”, the first of its kind in a city in Egypt for almost three years, except in the Sinai Peninsula, near the Suez Canal region, where groups are active. jihadists.
Two armed men got out of two cars that had approached the roadblock installed in a residential area of Ismailiya (north-east) and began firing automatic weapons at the police, added the security sources. Three police officers were killed and four injured, including an officer.
The report was confirmed by medical sources.
Other police officers responded by opening fire, killing one of the assailants and wounding the other, who nevertheless managed to flee, according to the same sources.
In recent years, attacks against security forces and state officials have been concentrated in the eastern Sinai Peninsula, where a jihadist insurgency is now on the decline.
The Egyptian army and police launched a vast “anti-terrorist” operation in February 2018 in Sinai where radical cells are raging, some of which have pledged allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). They are also fighting radical insurgents in the Western Desert, between the Nile Valley and the border with Libya.
More than a thousand jihadists and dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, according to official figures – but no independent report is available and North Sinai is off-limits to journalists.
The Suez Canal, which sees around 10% of world maritime trade pass through, is one of the main sources of foreign exchange for Egypt.
Elsewhere in the country, attacks have taken place in Cairo in recent years, notably in May 2019 at the site of the Giza pyramids, injuring 17 people.
In August 2019, also in Cairo, around 20 people were killed when a car loaded with explosives hit three other vehicles, causing a huge explosion.
In April 2020, a policeman and seven members of a “terrorist cell” were killed in exchanges of fire in Cairo. These jihadists were preparing, according to the authorities, to attack Christians during the Easter celebrations.
Since taking power in 2013 after the dismissal of Mohamed Morsi, President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi has carried out fierce repression against his detractors, muzzling the entire opposition and civil society.
NGOs regularly denounce human rights abuses in Egypt.