Egypt’s Interior Ministry said Sunday (January 15th) it has killed a leading figure of "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) affiliate Wilayat Sinai in a raid on a house in North Sinai, Egypt's Ahram Online reported.
The ministry said police received information on the location of Hamdan Hussein, born in 1978 in North Sinai, who resided in the provincial capital of al-Arish.
The tip revealed he was responsible for planting a number of roadside bombs that targeted security vehicles and leading an attack last week on a security checkpoint in front of al-Arish’s general hospital that killed a policeman.
Once police received permission from the state security prosecutor to raid Hussein’s house, they attempted to arrest him, the ministry said. He opened fire on police, who returned fire and killed him.
An automatic rifle and bullets were found in his possession.
In a separate incident in al-Arish on Monday, one civilian was killed and two were injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in the city.
The IED was planted in piles of garbage on Ahmed Oraby Street in the city centre.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Last week, the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) claimed responsibility for two separate attacks on checkpoints in North Sinai that killed eight policemen and one civilian and injured 11 policemen and 10 civilians.
