Two top security officials gunned down in Egypt

Cairo, July 25 (IANS) Two senior Egyptian security officials were killed in an armed attack by gunmen Friday in Sheikh Zuweid city of the restive North Sinai province bordering Israel, a security source said.

"The assailants pursued an armoured vehicle the two security men were driving, blocked their way, stopped them and opened fire at them," the source told Xinhua, noting that one of the two brigadier general-level officers belonged to the police while the other one was from the military.

The perpetrators are mostly extremists whose attacks against police and military personnel and premises have increased since the removal of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the military last year.

The deadly attack comes a few days after militants killed 22 military men at a checkpoint in Egypt's western desert Al-Wadi al-Gadid (the New Valley) province, about 500 km south of capital Cairo.

Extremist self-proclaimed Islamist groups, who refer to Morsi's overthrow as "a military coup", say their attacks were in retaliation for the harsh security crackdown on the major sit-ins of Morsi's supporters in August 2013, which left at least 1,000 people dead while thousands more were arrested.