Anonymous gunmen fired at a car owned by international peacekeeping forces in Sinai Thursday. The incident occurred several hours after a Bedouin was killed and another injured by security forces near the peacekeepers' camp in the Goura area of North Sinai.
Authorities are searching for the shooters.
The observer mission is stationed in Sinai to monitor the 1979 peace treaty with neighboring Israel. Dozens of Bedouins staged a sit-in outside the mission's camp to protest Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip.
A military source in North Sinai said security forces at a checkpoint near the camp returned fire when protesters shot toward the checkpoint and that the observer mission was not responsible for the shooting. Armed Forces spokesperson Ahmed Mohamed Ali told Al-Masry Al-Youm that 40 Goura area residents gathered outside the local airport to demand that convictions their relatives had received in absentia be dropped. The protesters then fired toward a checkpoint and security forces fired back.
Protester Gihad Mosallam Selmy was shot dead and Selmy Salem Saeed was injured, Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted an informed source as saying.
Bedouins drove a convoy of about 10 trucks to the site and set tires on fire in front of the camp.
Bedouins have protested outside the camp on several occasions. In a recent incident, they stormed the camp, smashed the control tower and injured three Colombian soldiers.
Fiji, New Zealand, Colombia, Uruguay, Canada, Australia, Norway, Italy, France, Hungary and the US contribute troops to the force.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
