Egyptian police officer gunned down in Suez

A high-ranking police officer in Egypt has been gunned down and another injured by two assailants in the Egyptian city of Suez, bringing to three the number of security forces killed in the country in the past 24 hours.

The deputy head of Feisal Police Station in Suez, identified as Walid El-Sadek, was killed on Sunday near Badr market in Salam City neighborhood during an exchange of fire with the two gunmen, who also injured a police cadet in the armed clash.

The two gunmen opened fire on the officers from the Third Field Army deployed in the market, Egyptian military spokesman Mohamed Samir stated in a Facebook post as cited in a report by the local Ahram Online news outlet.

According to the report, the soldiers targeted by the assailants reacted instantly, killing one of the gunmen while the other fled the scene and remains at large. Samir further identified the injured officer as Mohamed Mahmoud, adding that he was transferred to a military hospital.

Earlier on Sunday, a roadside blast in the restive city of el-Arish in North Sinai killed an Egyptian police captain and a cadet and injured three other officers as they were traveling in an armored vehicle, according to an Interior Ministry statement.

The developments came as eight more jailed supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi were sentenced to death by an Egyptian court in the city of Minya.

The criminal court in Minya issued preliminary death sentences against the eight for their alleged role in killing two security personnel and storming the Samalout police station in the Egyptian city of Minya following the breaking up of two pro-Morsi protest sit-ins in Cairo in August 2013.

Morsi himself and hundreds of his supporters have received death sentences. His ouster came in 2013 and was led by then army chief and now President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.