Nine killed in shootout near Egyptian coast

Nine people, including a police officer, four police conscripts and four militants were killed in attacks on a highway near the Mediterranean coast late Tuesday, officials said.

Gunmen attacked a checkpoint around El Dabaa, about 180 miles northwest of Cairo, and killed the five police, the Interior Ministry said. Soon after, four gunmen were killed by police in an attack on a second, nearby checkpoint protecting a tourist compound overlooking the sea, it said.

The highway connects Egypt’s second-largest city, Alexandria, with scores of resorts that stretch toward the Libyan border.

Police reinforcements were sent to the area to prevent further attacks.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Targeting Egyptian police and army soldiers has been on the rise since the army-led ouster of Mohamed Morsi, the former Islamist president, last summer. Most of the attacks have occurred in the Sinai Peninsula, and at checkpoints close to Egypt’s borders with Gaza, Israel and Libya.

According to the Interior Ministry, at least 500 members of the security forces have been killed by militants over the last 12 months.

Twenty-two border guards were killed by 20 men in four-wheel-drive vehicles who attacked them last month near the Libyan border.

Hassan is a special correspondent