Second Egyptian General Killed In Sinai In Two Weeks

Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed in an Islamist insurgency led by IS in the rugged and thinly populated Sinai Peninsula (file photo).

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

The Islamic State (IS) extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack on November 4, in which gunmen opened fire on Brigadier General 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 does not serve in Sinai, security sources said.

Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed in an Islamist insurgency led by IS in the rugged and thinly populated Sinai Peninsula. The IS affiliate in the Sinai has also claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian jet carrying hundreds of Russian tourists there.

Militant attacks have increased since the military in 2013 overthrew President Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest Islamist movement, following mass protests against his rule.

A new group calling itself Louwaa al-Thawra, or the Revolution Brigade, claimed responsibility for an attack on October 22 in which another general was killed in the same way as Abualazm.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP