Hesham Mahmoud Abualazm, 47, shot from a moving car in North Sinai, was the second general killed in two weeks

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

An Egyptian general has been killed by militants near his home in North Sinai, the military has said, the second soldier of his rank to be shot dead in as many weeks.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, in which gunmen opened fire on Brig Gen Hesham Mahmoud Abualazm from a moving car in Arish city, North Sinai’s provincial capital.

Abualazm, 47, died instantly. He was on a visit to Arish, where he owned a house, and did not serve in Sinai, security sources said.

Isis claimed responsibility via its news agency, Amaq.

How Sinai became a magnet for terror Read more

Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed in an Islamist insurgency led by the jihadi group in the rugged and thinly populated Sinai peninsula.

Attacks have been stepped up since the military overthrew President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement, in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule.

A new group calling itself Louwaa al-Thawra, or the Revolution Brigade, claimed responsibility for an attack on 22 October in which another general was killed in the same way as Abualazm.

Another senior military officer and a soldier were killed on Saturday in North Sinai in a roadside explosion.

Egyptian authorities said earlier on Friday they had arrested leaders and members of Louwaa al-Thawra and another recently emerged militant group, the Hasam Movement, and had seized weapons and explosives.

Authorities also said they had proof the organisations had been set up by the brotherhood, which says it is a non-violent movement.

Judges, police officers and senior officials have increasingly been targeted by radical Islamists angered by hefty prison sentences imposed on members of the now outlawed group.