Second Egyptian police officer killed by gunmen in Sinai

Sept. 18, 2015 - Palestinians at entrance of a smuggling tunnel running between Egypt and the Rafah border, in the southern Gaza Strip. The killing of a senior Egyptian police officer on the street in the Sinai peninsula came days after the Egyptian military reportedly began flooding smuggling tunnels running from the peninsula to the Gaza strip.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a senior Egyptian police officer on a street in the Sinai peninsula, killing him before escaping.

The assailants killed Brig. Gen. Ahmed Mohammed Askar in the Sinai city of el-Arish late Saturday night, Egypt's Ministry of Interior said in a statement Sunday.

He was the second senior police officer killed by militants in Sinai in the last week, UPI reported. An ISIS-affiliated group claimed responsibility for a drive-by shooting that killed Khaled Kamal Osman Wednesday.

The ministry statement says security forces cordoned off the area in an attempt to capture the perpetrators of Saturday’s attack.

The killings come just days after the Egyptian military reportedly began flooding smuggling tunnels running from the peninsula to the Gaza strip.

The military has launched an ongoing offensive against extremist forces in the Sinai Peninsula, which has seen a wave of militant attacks against Egyptian security forces since the 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

Members of an Islamic State affiliate have largely targeted troops in the northern Sinai Peninsula since the overthrow of Morsi. At least 1,400 people have died and thousands were jailed in the aftermath.

A claim of responsibility for the fatal shooting by the ISIS’ Egypt affiliate-- known as Sinai Province of the Islamic State-- circulated on social media over the weekend.

Since last year, Egypt has been destroying homes on the Gaza border in an effort to create a buffer zone that would stop the flow of militants and weapons between countries. The buffer, originally more than 540 yards deep, was doubled after extensive tunnels were discovered in November.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.