Army brigadier general shot dead in Cairo suburb - sources

CAIRO (Reuters) - An army brigadier general was shot dead by unknown assailants in the Cairo district of Gesr al-Suez, security sources said on Friday. The officer was killed and two others wounded when gunmen opened fire in a parking garage before fleeing the scene, the state news agency MENA said, citing an army statement. Egypt is facing an Islamist insurgency in which hundreds of security officers have been killed since Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Mursi was ousted last summer. The insurgency is concentrated in parts of the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula, where the government has imposed emergency law following an attack on security forces that left at least 33 of their number dead. [ID:nL6N0SJ381] However, militants have extended their reach to the capital, attacking landmarks such as the Supreme Court, the Foreign Ministry and Cairo University in recent months. After the attack, which was some of the worst anti-state violence since Mursi's overthrow, the government also began razing homes to build a kilometre-deep buffer zone bordering the Gaza Strip, and allowed civilians to be tried in military courts. (Reporting By Ahmed Tolba; Writing By Shadi Bushra; Editing by Kevin Liffey)