A group of gunmen shot dead a sergeant in the Egyptian police early Friday, security sources said. Ibrahim Ahmad Lashin, 30, was heading to his office in el-Arish when masked gunmen opened fire. His body was transferred to el-Arish military hospital, and will be taken by military jet to Cairo. Egyptian armed forces launched large scale military action against militants in the Sinai Peninsula in early September, in what officials described as the largest mobilization of force in the area since the 1973 war with Israel. Armed groups opposed to the military have responded violently against the crackdown. At least 2,000 have been killed and more than 3,000 detained across Egypt in the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood since Aug. 14, when police forcibly dispersed two protest camps in Cairo. Source: Maan