Three judges shot dead, 3 hurt in Egypt attack

At least three judges were on Saturday shot dead by gunmen in Egypt’s restive Sinai region, where security forces have been locked in a battle with Islamist insurgents backed by an outfit linked to the dreaded Islamic State group.

The militant attack targeted a bus in Al-Arish city, killing the judges and wounding three others, an official said. The shooting happened hours after a Cairo court sentenced deposed President Mohammed Morsi and over 100 other Islamists to death over mass prison breaks during the 2011 uprising.

The capital punishment to Morsi made him the first president in Egypt’s history to face the possibility of death by hanging if court ratifies its initial decision on June 2 or he loses his projected appeal.

Some of over 100 others given the death sentence included Islamists from Sinai, where militants have often launched attacks against policemen and soldiers. 

However, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

But the area is a bastion of a militant group Ansar Beit?el-Maqdes, which in November 2014 announced that it has changed its name to Sinai Province after pledging allegiance to the dreaded Islamic State. The Sinai peninsula has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Mohamed Morsi in 2013. More than 500 security personnel have been killed since then. 

The military has also launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belong to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

It is unclear whether the attack was linked to anger over the death sentence passed for Morsi in Cairo. His Muslim Brotherhood party has been banned and hundreds of its former officials and supporters have been arrested and jailed.

The Sinai Peninsula has seen frequent outbreaks of violence in recent months and terrorist attacks prompted the Egyptian government to declare a state of emergency last year. In January, an ISIS-affiliated group claimed responsibility for rocket and bomb attacks on the military and police that killed at least 26 people.