Policeman among two people killed in Egypt

DPA/Cairo

Unidentified gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead the policeman in the northern city of Mansura, the latest attack targeting security forces in Egypt, police said.

The policeman was a guard of a judge assigned the trial of the deposed president Mohamed Mursi, according to media reports.

Security forces and facilities have been the target of a series of attacks blamed on insurgents since the military toppled Mursi in July.

Mursi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, is facing four trials on multiple charges. His trial on charges of inciting anti-Islamist protesters is to resume Saturday in Cairo.

Elsewhere in Egypt, one person was killed and another wounded yesterday in clashes between backers and opponents of Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood in the coastal city of Alexandria, police said.

A senior policeman in the city accused the Brotherhood supporters of opening fire on opponents in the district of al-Seyouf in eastern Alexandria.

“Security forces intervened and ended the clashes. Ten Brotherhood followers were arrested for involvement in violence,” Major General Naser al-Abd, head of the city’s investigations department, told state-run newspaper Al-Ahram.

However, the website of the Islamist group charged that security forces had shot at its followers - who were holding a protest in the area - killing two people.

Supporters of the Brotherhood have been holding protests almost on a daily basis since July, demanding Mursi’s reinstatement.

The numbers of protesters have dwindled in recent weeks due to a relentless security crackdown. Thousands of Islamists allegedly inciting violence have been rounded up since Mursi’s overthrow.

In December, the military-backed government designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist group. The group has repeatedly denied any link to violence, accusing the authorities of oppression.

Earlier this month, a suicide bomber attacked a tourist bus in the town of Taba in the Sinai Peninsula, leaving three South Koreans and an Egyptian driver dead.

The unrest prompted Italy yesterday to advise its nationals against travelling to the vast desert area, dealing an additional blow to Egypt’s fragile tourism industry.