Egypt’s news agency: Security kills militant in north Sinai

CAIRO – Egypt’s state-run news agency says security forces killed a militant who tried to blow himself up near a checkpoint in a restive province in northern Sinai.

MENA news agency reports that security forces shot and killed the militant on Thursday in the Mediterranean coastal city of el-Arish, before he could detonate his explosive-laden belt.

The official Facebook page of Egypt’s interior ministry posted a photograph showing the purported militant’s body on the ground, his face blurred out.

Egypt has battled an insurgency led by an Islamic State affiliate for years in the Sinai Peninsula. The fighting has occasionally spilled over to the mainland.