A policeman was killed on Tuesday when gunmen opened fire on his convoy in the Sinai peninsula, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said, DPA reported.
Lieutenant Mohamed Thabet and his convoy exchanged fire in the Nekhel area, in central Sinai, with the "criminals," who fled the scene shortly after. Another policeman was injured.
Islamist radicals have been blamed for attacks on a pipeline that carries gas to Israel, as well as raids on police stations in Sinai, where security has deteriorated since the overthrow of president Hosny Mubarak more than a year ago.
Bedouins across Sinai have also attacked police stations, blocked roads and occasionally taken foreign hostages to demand the release of imprisoned relatives or to protest the government's negligence of the peninsula.