Egypt officer found shot dead in north Sinai

Egyptian authorities found the body of an army officer who had been shot dead in the northern Sinai late Monday, officials said. Military officials identified the victim as 35-year-old officer Abdullah Abdul-Minem. His body was found with a bullet wound in the head in Sheikh Zuweid city near El-Arish. Separately, another police officer was shot by unidentified gunmen on Monday on his return home to El-Arish. The man was found in a pool of blood after having been shot several times in the abdomen, and was evacuated by helicopter to a military hospital in Cairo. Early Monday, Egyptian security forces made a sweep of arrests in the northern Sinai, detaining 38 suspects in El-Arish, a security official told Ma'an. Separately, families in the Egyptian border city Rafah turned in to the authorities two men suspected of planning a bomb attack on the central security headquarters in the city. Egyptian security are battling for control of the peninsula since the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last year loosened the grip of state security in the isolated Sinai. Military officials also warned that Jihadi groups want to oust state forces and have launched a number of deadly attacks on security officers.