Four officers shot dead at police facility

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A shooting Sunday at a heavily fortified security facility in the restive part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula killed at least four police, including a senior officer, two security and health officials.

At least 21 other forces were wounded in the shooting at the National Security headquarters in al-Arish, the capital city of North Sinai province.

A list of casualties obtained by The Associated Press showed that some forces suffered from gunshots and others faced breathing difficulties from tear gas that was fired inside the facility. There were eight officers among the wounded, the list showed.

The officials there spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting were not immediately clear, and there was no immediate comment from the Interior Ministry, which oversees police forces.

North Sinai is the scene of a yearslong battle against an insurgency led by extremist militants who have carried out scores of attacks.

The pace of militant attacks in Sinai’s main theater of operations and elsewhere has slowed to a trickle since February 2018, when the military launched a massive operation in Sinai and parts of the Nile Delta as well as desert areas along the country’s western border with Libya.