Three people killed in Cairo blast

Five Egyptian policemen were killed late on Wednesday when unidentified assailants opened fire on them in Egypt’s North Sinai, the interior ministry has said.

Its fighters are waging an insurgency against security forces in North Sinai, and have regularly carried out deadly attacks on policemen and soldiers.

The region is known to harbor rebels affiliated with Islamic State.

A gun battle ensued in which the five policemen were killed and three conscripts were wounded, it said.

“In a statement circulated on Twitter, the Welayet Sinai” (Province of Sinai) group said its members had also seized an armored vehicle during the attack.

Egypt’s Ministry of Interior announced that reinforcements have been deployed to chase the gunmen and that the area of the attack has been cordoned off by security personnel. The attacks targeting police and military personnel increased after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Egypt’s North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.