A Coptic Christian teacher has been killed in the city of El-Arish in Egypt’s North Sinai province, four days after the murder of a Coptic vet.
Gamal Tawfiq, 50, was gunned down on his way to school this morning (16 Feb), reports AP.
His murder follows that of Bahgat Zakhar on Sunday (12 Feb).
Both murders have been linked to a regional offshoot of the Islamic State group, formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis.
Residents of North Sinai’s cities are increasingly frequently subjected to kidnappings and killings by jihadists affiliated to the group, which pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014. Two Coptic priests were among those murdered in El-Arish in recent years.
The killings in Sinai follow a spate of killings of Copts elsewhere in Egypt in January, when five Copts were killed in less than two weeks.
Each had their throat cut, while money and other valuables were left behind – even though police had said robbery was the motive behind at least one of the murders.
