Egypt police general gunned down in Sinai street

Gunmen killed an Egyptian police general on the street in the Sinai Peninsula stronghold of the Islamic State group late on Saturday, the interior ministry said.  

General Ahmed Abdel Satar was the second senior police officer in three days to be killed in the North Sinai provincial capital El-Arish. 

On Wednesday evening, assailants killed General Khaled Kamal Osman as he inspected a police unit in a drive-by shooting claimed by the jihadists' Egyptian affiliate IS Sinai Province.

The security forces have struggled to suppress an insurgency in the peninsula since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Cairo says militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers, many in attacks claimed by IS. 

The military launched a major operation earlier this month and says it has killed more than 200. The army often reports large death tolls among the insurgents but they are impossible to verify and there has been little noticeable impact on the ability of IS to carry out deadly attacks on the security forces. 

The militants say their campaign is in response to a crackdown by the authorities since Morsi's ouster that has left at least 1,400 people dead and thousands jailed.

Global rights group, Amnesty International says the crackdown has resulted in more than 41,000 people arrested, charged or indicted with a criminal offence, or sentenced after unfair trials.  

Earlier this month, the authorities released 165 people who had been jailed for breaking a controversial protest law. 

Those released do not include any figures from the 2011 revolt that drove Hosni Mubarak from power and who were imprisoned under the law in a move that caused uproar among human rights groups. 

Amnesty also criticised Sisi's Western allies for their ties with his regime, saying there is  no indication that stopping gross human rights violations in Egypt was on the agenda during their meetings with it.