Unknown assailants kill 3 Egypt policemen in Sharqiya

Three Egyptian policemen have been killed in the Nile delta province of Sharqiya after coming under attack by masked gunmen in the city of Zaqaziq.

The attack happened when the police conscripts were returning home from duty on Wednesday.

Another policeman sustained life-threatening injuries and is in critical condition, according to local media reports.

The victims sustained gunshot wounds to the head after hooded men riding a motorcycle opened fire on them.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the killings yet.

A spate of similar attacks occurred in Sharqiya province in the past month, leaving three police personnel dead and another injured.

Such attacks on soldiers and police have increased since the army’s ouster of president Mohamed Morsi back in July.

The majority of the attacks have been carried out in the largely lawless Sinai Peninsula. Police are now conducting search operations to locate the culprits, but no arrests have been made so far.

An ensuing crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood supporters has landed thousands of them in jail.

Hundreds of people have also been killed in clashes with security forces or unknown assailants in the country’s largely chaotic situation.

The increasing number of attacks against police also coincide with the endorsement of field marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to run for presidency.

On January 27, Egypt’s military authorities approved Sisi as a candidate to run for president later this year. Sisi has not said whether he would seek the country’s highest office yet.

Shortly after the announcement, Egypt’s Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa El-Din resigned from his post in protest against Sisi’s candidacy.

On July 3, 2013, the army ousted Morsi, who was the first democratically-elected president of Egypt.