EL-ARISH, Egypt — A senior Egyptian police officer was shot and wounded Tuesday in the second recent attack of its kind on security forces in the country’s turbulent northern Sinai region.
Security officials said Inspector General Selim Said el-Gamal was riding in a police car with other officers in the provincial capital of el-Arish when attackers in an unmarked white truck opened fire at their vehicle.
Officials said Gamal stumbled out of the car after he was shot and the driver and other officers ran for cover by fleeing the vehicle. Some of the assailants — who had fired from the bed of their truck — took off with the police vehicle.
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Later the same day, officials said, gunmen ambushed an army truck in the town of Sheikh Zuweyid just outside el-Arish, stealing the vehicle that had been transporting fuel to nearby bases and checkpoints.
Dr. Tareq Khater, a medical official in northern Sinai, said Gamal was shot in the neck and is in critical condition. He was airlifted from el-Arish to Cairo for treatment.