Egypt police officer shot dead in attack claimed by IS

Masked gunmen shot dead an Egyptian police officer Sunday in the Sinai, the interior ministry said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group which is leading an insurgency in the peninsula.

Gunmen opened fire on Captain Abdullah Khalil in the early hours of Sunday as he stood in front of his house in El-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai, the ministry said in a statement.

The Sinai Province, the Egyptian affiliate of IS, claimed the attack.

"A security detachment was able to eliminate the apostate Abdullah Khalil... in the centre of the city of El-Arish," it said in a statement posted on the group's Twitter accounts.

The IS affiliate is waging an insurgency in the restive peninsula that has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

It has also claimed the downing of a Russian plane over Sinai on October 31, which killed all 224 people on board.

The Sinai jihadists pledged allegiance in November 2014 to IS, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria.