Militants have stormed a post office in Egypt’s northern Sinai Peninsula and seized around $4,800 in local currency.
Monday’s attack in al-Rouda village was carried out by three gunmen who were riding a pickup truck, witnesses and informed sources said.
Two of the gunmen pointed their guns at the post office employee and local residents present at the time of the attack, while the third seized the cash, they said.
The assailants later escaped, they added.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
A 2017 militant attack on a mosque in Rouda village killed 311 people and left more than 120 others injured.
Mohammed Mansour, a village resident, told Asharq Al-Awsat that during Monday’s robbery, he was among several people waiting to receive compensations for the families of the victims of the 2017 attack.
Mansour, whose brother was killed in the mosque attack, said the masked gunmen took all the money they found in the coffer.
Another witness, named Abou Mohammed, said he immediately remembered the mosque attack when the gunmen burst into the post office.
“When the gunmen escaped, we hurried to our homes. Some children accompanying their mothers were crying,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The post office lies only 250 meters away from the Rouda mosque, said Abou Mohammed. “It serves the village residents and helps the families of victims receive compensations on a monthly basis.”
In October 2017, gunmen stormed a bank in central Arish and took over cash from its safe after killing three policemen.
