The Wall Street Journal reports: An Egyptian Islamic State affiliate on Sunday claimed responsibility for a drive-by shooting that killed eight policemen in a Cairo suburb, the first attack on the capital’s police forces in months.

Four masked gunmen in a pickup truck blocked the path of a minibus carrying plainclothes officers as they patrolled the south Cairo suburb of Helwan, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The gunmen then jumped off the truck and sprayed the minibus with bullets, killing all aboard including a ranking supervising officer before driving away, the ministry said, without identifying the suspects.

Investigators found some 120 shell casings at the scene, prosecutors said.

The affiliate, Islamic State Egypt, released a statement calling the attack a retaliation for the Egyptian government’s jailing of “pure” women, an apparent reference to dissident Islamists detained in Egypt.

It identified the slain ranking officer and included five photos of the bullet-riddled minibus with the officers’ bodies inside. It said the assailants had taken some weapons from the scene as “spoils.” [Continue reading…]