At least 4 Egypt police killed in Sinai bombing — state TV

CAIRO — At least four Egyptian policemen were killed Wednesday when a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a police club in the Sinai Peninsula, state media reported, as the Daesh terror group claimed the attack.

State television said there were also people wounded in the bombing in North Sinai provincial capital El Arish. The official MENA news agency said four policemen died in the bombing.

The Daesh affiliate in Sinai said one of its militants drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a police social club in the town.

The militants have carried out a string of attacks in or around the provincial capital in recent months, after the army launched a sweeping campaign in the peninsula bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip.

The attack came days after a Russian passenger plane crashed in the peninsula after taking off from a resort airport in South Sinai, killing all 224 people on board.

Daesh has claimed it downed the plane but provided no details, and experts say other scenarios include a mechanical fault that caused it to disintegrate in mid-air.

The group has deployed shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles in the past but they are not known to possess weapons that could bring down an airliner flying at high altitude.

The militants have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

They say their attacks have been in retaliation for an ensuing police crackdown in which hundreds of Morsi supporters have been killed and thousands, including the ousted president, jailed.

In an interview with the BBC, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, said the Sinai "is under our full control".

In its statement, Daesh said it carried out the bombing against the "apostate" police force in retaliation for the arrests of bedouin women in the region.