Egyptian officer killed on bomb defusing mission

At least one Egyptian police officer has been killed during a bomb defusing mission in the capital, Cairo.

According to Egyptian police sources on Tuesday, the police officer was killed while trying to defuse a bomb which had been planted in a flower pot outside a gas station.

Three service workers at the station, which is located near a police station, also lost their lives after the bomb exploded.

The Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt) militant group claimed responsibility for having placed the bomb.

Earlier in the day, unknown gunmen shot dead two Egyptian police officers who were standing guard at a Coptic Christian church in the city of Minya, south of Cairo, local security sources said.

On Monday, a bomb attack wounded at least four police officers in the city of el-Arish in the violence-scarred Sinai Peninsula of the North African country.

A state of emergency has been declared in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula since a militant attack on an Egyptian army checkpoint killed more than 30 soldiers last October.

The Egyptian military considers the Sinai Peninsula a safe haven for gunmen, who use the region as a base for their “acts of terror.”

Since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s former president, on July 3, 2013, gunmen have launched almost daily attacks in Sinai, killing members of security forces.