CAIRO: Security forces shot dead a Palestinian and wounded two others yesterday after they tried to enter Egypt from Gaza through a tunnel under the border town of Rafah, security officials said.
The men, who were spotted by a security patrol, tried to run back into the tunnel after being ordered to stop and were shot.
Egypt’s army says it has destroyed more than 1,600 tunnels connecting the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, most of them since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last year.
The Islamist group Hamas, the main power in the blockaded Palestinian enclave, uses the tunnels to smuggle in arms, food and money.
In a separate incident in Sinai, security officials announced the death yesterday of a leader from Egypt’s deadliest militant group, Ansar Beit Al Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem).
Officials said the slain jihadist was an explosives expert who was attempting with three others to plant a roadside bomb.
In Cairo, a court yesterday confirmed the death sentences of five men convicted of the January killing of a policeman guarding a church in Cairo.
Two others were sentenced to life imprisonment, which is equivalent to 25 years.
The authorities say about 500 police and troops have been killed by militants since the army ousted Mursi in July 2013.
In addition to the policeman’s killing, the seven men were also charged with forming a “terrorist cell” and plotting attacks against the security forces.
The death sentences were handed down in August. They were then forwarded to the grand mufti, who granted his approval, before being confirmed yesterday.
AFP
