AN ARMY brigadier general has been shot dead by unknown assailants in the Cairo district of Gesr al-Suez.

The officer was killed and two others wounded when gunmen opened fire in a parking garage before fleeing the scene.

Egypt is facing an Islamist insurgency in which hundreds of security officers have been killed since Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Mursi was ousted last summer and replaced by a military leader.

The insurgency is concentrated in parts of the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula, where the government has imposed emergency law following an attack on security forces that left at least 33 of their number dead.

However, militants have extended their reach to the capital, attacking landmarks such as the Supreme Court, the Foreign Ministry and Cairo University in recent months.

After the earlier attack, which was some of the worst anti-state violence since Mr Mursi's overthrow, the government also began razing homes to build a buffer zone of several hundreds of yards bordering the Gaza Strip.

It has also changed the law to allow civilians to be tried in military courts.