ISTANBUL, Jan 2: The Daesh/ISIS terror group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a security checkpoint in Egypt earlier this week. Two gunmen on a motorbike attacked a police checkpoint in the canal city of Ismailia on Friday.

Local media said an attacker was killed in the attack, without giving any information about casualties among police forces. Foreign media, however, said three policemen were killed in the attack.

The Daesh/ISIS’s Amaq News Agency said a “cell of its soldiers” had attacked a police roadblock with a machine gun. It said policemen were killed and injured in the attack, without providing further details. There was no comment from Egyptian authorities on the Daesh/ISIS claim.

Friday’s attack was the first in nearly three years in mainland Egypt. The Welayat Sinai group, affiliated with the Daesh/ISIS, has staged an insurgency against Egyptian security forces since 2013, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, killing hundreds of security personnel.