CAIRO: Gunmen killed an officer from the Egyptian national security agency in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig on Saturday, officials said, the latest in a string of attacks on police and troops.
Attacks on the security forces have surged since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July, and as the military-installed authorities have pressed a deadly crackdown on his supporters.
The attackers shot Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Eid as he was getting out of his car after travelling to his home in Zagazig, security officials said, adding he later died of his wounds in a hospital.
Eid was in charge of the "extremist groups' file" and he had helped to draft a report accusing several leaders and members of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood of inciting violence and carrying out attacks, state news agency MENA reported.
In November, gunmen killed another national security officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Mabruk, who was in charge of the Brotherhood file.
Mabruk had been involved in preparing charges against Mursi and the Brotherhood's supreme guide Mohammed Badie ahead of their trials, a security official said at that time.
Saturday's killing came after an Egyptian court adjourned until Monday Mursi's trial over charges related to jailbreaks and attacks on police stations during the uprising that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Prosecutors say the attacks on police stations and the jailbreaks, in which Mursi and other political prisoners escaped, were a Brotherhood-led conspiracy to sow chaos in Egypt.
Mursi is also currently standing trial in two other cases one on charges of espionage and carrying out "terror attacks" and another over the killing of protesters during his presidency.
He is also expected to be tried for "insulting the judiciary", but no date has yet been set for the case.
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