An Officer Killed in Attack on Military Airport in Egypt's Sinai

A spokesperson for the Egyptian armed forces stated in a statement published on Facebook that on Tuesday, during a mortar attack on a military airport in the city of Arish in the Sinai region, one officer was killed and two others were injured. According to Reuters, the attack coincided with a visit by Egypt's Defense and Interior Ministers to the area. A security source reported that neither minister was harmed during the attack. The two injured individuals are an officer and a soldier. The statement mentioned that a helicopter was damaged and added without further details that Egyptian forces 'responded to the source of the fire.' The Egyptian army has been fighting extremist Islamists in the Sinai region for years, during which hundreds of Egyptian military and police personnel have been killed. Attacks claimed by the Islamic State group in the Sinai region have also targeted civilians in the past year. The public perception is that this group was responsible for last month's attack on a mosque, which was the deadliest armed attack in modern Egyptian history, leaving over 300 dead. However, the Islamic State group did not claim responsibility for that attack. According to the Associated Press, visits by senior Egyptian officials to the Sinai region are usually conducted secretly, and the recent trip by the Defense and Interior Ministers was revealed only due to the occurrence of the attack on the Arish airbase. Armed clashes in the Sinai region have intensified since 2013, when the Egyptian armed forces ousted the Muslim Brotherhood government led by President Mohamed Morsi.