Egyptian officer, smuggler killed during South Sinai drug bust

An Egyptian army officer was killed and two other personnel were injured during a drug bust in the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptian military announced.

A second officer and another soldier were wounded in the clashes that broke out between border guards and drug smugglers in the South Sinai governorate, a military spokesman said.

One of the smugglers were also killed, he added.

The clash broke out after Egyptian soldiers grew suspicious of a vehicle that reportedly turned out to be transporting large amounts of narcotics. They were met with gunshots as they approached the vehicle.

The spokesman added that the army was able to thwart the smuggling attempt.

Sinai shares a border with Israel and the besieged Palestinian coastal territory of Gaza.

Drug smuggling attempts are often thwarted in the region.

For over a decade now, the Egyptian military has been fighting an armed insurgency in the restive North Sinai province against militants of Egypt’s branch of the Islamic State group, known as Wilayat Sinai.

Hundreds of soldiers, militants and civilians are believed to have died, while many of the region’s Bedouin communities have been forced to leave their homes.