At least four people have been killed in separate attacks carried out by militants in the restive Egyptian governorate of North Sinai.
According to Egyptian security officials, militants gunned down two policemen in el-Arish, the capital of the governorate, in an overnight attack on Friday.
Later in the day, another policeman and a retired officer were also targeted and killed by militants respectively outside a school and at a market place in the city, the officials added.
Reports also said the exchange of fire between police and Muslim Brotherhood members claimed the lives of a police officer and three members of the banned party in the north of the Egyptian capital city of Cairo.
No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the Sinai attacks. However, such deadly incidents are blamed on the ISIL-affiliated militants.
ISIL (also known as Daesh) gained a foothold in the African country last November, when Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, an al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group, pledged allegiance to ISIL and changed its name to Velayat Sinai (Sinai Caliphate).
The Sinai Peninsula has long been considered 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, in July 2013, gunmen have launched attacks in Sinai, killing members of Egypt’s security forces.
On January 31, the Sinai-based group killed 30 people and injured dozens in a series of coordinated attacks on the peninsula.
ISIL, with members from several Western countries, controls swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, and has been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.
[Editor's note: article has been modified from source material.]
