Bloody Sunday for restive Sinai

(MENAFN- Arab News) CAIRO: It was a bloody Sunday for Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula. A suicide car bomb targeting a police station killed two people and wounded 30 others police and medics said.
The bombing came hours after a roadside blast targeted an army vehicle killing six soldiers and wounding two in the peninsula where security forces are battling an insurgency.
One of the two killed in the suicide car bombing was a civilian and several policemen were among those wounded medics said.
Police said the attacker drove a truck loaded with explosives but covered with straw and detonated it close to the police station in North Sinai's provincial capital of El-Arish.
The facade of the police station was damaged police said adding that several nearby buildings also suffered damages.
Earlier the roadside bomb attack on an armored killed six soldiers including an officer military officials said.
The attack took place as the country's defense minister carried out a limited military reshuffle replacing the commander of the army division responsible for securing northern Sinai. Maj. Gen. Mohammed El-Shahat who only commanded Egypt's second field army for about a year was promoted to head of military intelligence; El-Shahat's deputy Maj. Gen. Nasser El-Assi will replace him.
El-Assi inherits a simmering Sinai-based insurgency that continues to successfully target army soldiers and police officers despite an intensive military campaign. The attacks surged following the 2013 military ouster of President Muhammad Mursi.
Officials said the explosion Sunday occurred in the village of Kharouba south of El-Arish the capital of North Sinai province.
The reshuffle in military leadership also included the commander of the Egyptian navy at a time when the navy could begin playing an increasingly prominent role because of the Yemeni crisis. Egyptian warships are already deployed off the coast of Yemen to secure the strategically vital Bab El-Mandab strait the gateway to the Suez Canal.