EL-ARISH: A roadside bomb exploded on Tuesday near an armored police vehicle traveling in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula, killing 11 police officers, including a senior official, security and medical officials said.

The bomb appeared to have been detonated by remote control and it went off as the police vehicle was driving through the village of el-Wefaq near the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, security officials said. A medical official said the explosion also wounded two officers.

The Egyptian military, aided by police forces, is carrying out an offensive in the northern Sinai, a militant stronghold where it has killed and captured dozens of suspects in recent months.

The country has been battling an Islamic insurgency in the area for years, but violence there dramatically escalated after the military’s ouster last July of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and its subsequent crackdown on his Muslim Broth­erhood supporters.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2014