Gunmen shoot dead Egyptian cop, injure another in Sinai

The gunmen opened fire on the police post in the city of el-Arish, situated 344 kilometers (214 miles) northeast of the capital, Cairo, early on Sunday. A policeman died and another suffered gunshot wounds.
 
The development comes a day after Egyptian military forces killed seven militants during separate operations in the violence-plagued Sinai.
 
A state of emergency has been declared in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula since a militant attack on an Egyptian army checkpoint killed more than 30 soldiers on October 24.
 
Residents living along the border between northern Sinai and the besieged Gaza Strip have been ordered to relocate. The Egyptian army is also razing over 800 houses in the area to create a wider buffer zone with Gaza.
 
The Egyptian military considers the Sinai Peninsula as a safe haven for gunmen, who use the region as a base for their acts of terror.
 
Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, an al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group, has claimed responsibility for most of the terrorist attacks in the region.