Egyptian security forces clashed with armed suspects in the mountains of Sinai on Tuesday, killing a man who was involved in last year's bombings of beach resorts on the peninsula, the government said.
The gunbattle broke out as police were chasing armed men believed involved in the October bombings at the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras A-Shitan, which killed 34 people, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, according to The AP.
The ministry identified the suspect killed Tuesday as Mohammed Abdel Rahman Badawi, saying he participated in the Sinai bombings and was found armed with an automatic rifle and a handgun.
Witnesses said two people were killed in the shootout - a policeman and an armed man - outside Ras el-Sudr, a Red Sea town 25 miles south of Suez. But the ministry said only that a policeman was wounded.
Interior Minister Habib el-Adly said last month that police were closing in on two key suspects in the Sinai bombings. One of the blasts destroyed a wing of the Taba Hilton Hotel.
