CAIRO: Gunmen kidnapped an Egyptian police officer yesterday in the Sinai Peninsula, home to Islamist militants seeking to topple the country’s government, the state news agency said.
The policeman was travelling in a bus from the north Sinai city of Rafah to Al Arish when the gunmen stopped the vehicle and took him away. “This seems like a terrorist operation, not a criminal one, but we are not sure if it is Ansar yet,” a security official said. Ansar is Egypt’s most lethal militant group, which used to be called Ansar Bayt Al Maqdis before recently changing its name to Sinai Province. It has sworn allegiance to Islamic State. No group has claimed responsibility for the Sinai kidnapping.
Any signs that militants are kidnapping as a new tactic are likely to raise fresh security concerns in Egypt, where the vital tourism industry and economy have suffered from violence.Reuters
