The "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for a deadly Tuesday (April 18th) attack on a checkpoint near a monastery in Sinai, AFP reported.
A policeman was killed and three others were wounded Tuesday when gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint near St. Catherine's monastery, the Interior Ministry said.
"A number of gunmen... facing one of the checkpoints on the road to St. Catherine's in south Sinai shot at security forces at the checkpoint," the ministry said in a statement.
Security forces returned fire, wounding some of the attackers and "forcing them to flee", it said.
The police were working to track down the gunmen, the ministry said.
South Sinai health ministry official Khalid Abu Hashem said the injured were in stable condition and had been taken to hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The attack comes nine days after ISIL attacked Palm Sunday services at Coptic Christian churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria.
The combined death toll from those attacks was raised to 47 on Tuesday after one person wounded in the Alexandria attack died in hospital, Egypt's Ahram Online reported.
On Wednesday, a man suspected of involvement in the Tanta attack turned himself in to a prosecutor’s office in Qena governorate.
The man, named as Mahmoud Mohamed Ali Hussein, has been transferred to the State Security headquarters for investigations.
