Unidentified attackers fired at policemen manning a checkpoint on the Ahmed Hamdy Tunnel-Sharm el-Sheikh Road near Wadi Feiran, 50 kilometers west of St. Katherine and 60 kilometers away from Tor in South Sinai, a police source told MENA.
Police exchanged fire with the attackers, but no injuries were reported.
A source from the South Sinai Security Directorate said the attack took place “in response to the successful campaign by police to crack down on armed gangs in the area.”
The source added that the gangs came from North Sinai and had dispersed in the Wadi Feiran Mountains, near the Gulf of Suez.
Security in Sinai has deteriorated in the last two years, with some Bedouins attacking police stations, blocking off roads and taking hostages to voice discontent with what they say is poor treatment and ineffective policies on the part of the central government.
Suspected Islamist gunmen killed 16 Egyptian border guards during an assault on a checkpoint last August near the Egypt-Israel border.
Edited translation from MENA
