{"id":25198,"date":"2016-05-09T02:06:18","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T02:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/egyptian-policemen-killed-in-ambush-south-of\/"},"modified":"2016-05-09T02:05:50","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T02:05:50","slug":"egyptian-policemen-killed-in-ambush-south-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/egyptian-policemen-killed-in-ambush-south-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian policemen killed in ambush south of Cairo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Eight plainclothes policemen in Egypt have been shot dead on the outskirts of the capital, Cairo, officials say.}<\/p>\n<p>Their white police van was ambushed in the early hours of Sunday morning in the southern district of Helwan.<\/p>\n<p>Four gunmen in a truck sprayed the vehicle with bullets from automatic weapons, the interior ministry said.<\/p>\n<p>Militants affiliated to so-called Islamic State (IS), who usually operate in the Sinai Peninsula, say they carried out the attack.<\/p>\n<p>Known as Sinai Province, the IS faction has killed hundreds of security personnel in the Sinai region since the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.<\/p>\n<p>The insurgents have recently conducted hit-and-run attacks on police in Cairo and been behind small-scale bombings in the city.<\/p>\n<p>BBC World Service Middle East editor Sebastian Usher says killing so many policemen so near Cairo is a worrying escalation.<\/p>\n<p>The group posted pictures online, showing several bodies of the policemen riddled with bullets.<\/p>\n<p>{{More on IS in Egypt:}}<\/p>\n<p>Formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem), group first appeared in September 2011<\/p>\n<p>Changed name to Sinai Province and pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014<br \/>\nIntensified attacks since 2013 coup<\/p>\n<p>Said it downed a Russian airliner over the Sinai in October 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The IS statement said the fighters, who were reportedly wearing masks, seized light weapons from the policemen before they fled unharmed, the Associated Press news agency reports.<\/p>\n<p>The statement said the attack was in revenge for Islamist women held in Egyptian jails.<\/p>\n<p>The policemen, who were patrolling the area when the truck blocked their path, included a lieutenant and seven low-ranking officers, the interior ministry said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-12197 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/van.jpg\" alt=\"People gather gather around a bullet-ridden police vehicle in Helwan, south of Cairo - 8 May 2016Image copyrightAP Image caption The police van was on patrol in Helwan overnight\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Eight plainclothes policemen in Egypt have been shot dead on the outskirts of the capital, Cairo, officials say.} Their white police van was ambushed in the early hours of Sunday morning in the southern district of Helwan. Four gunmen in a truck sprayed the vehicle with bullets from automatic weapons, the interior ministry said. Militants [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25198"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25198"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}