Egypt\'s interim leader Adly Mansour Cairo – Akram Ali Egypt\'s interim president Adly Mansour on Friday ordered the dissolution of the Shura Council, the country\'s Islamist-led legislative assembly , according to the official MENA state news agency.
In his first decree since taking the oath of office on Thursday, the 67-year-old also named Mohammed Ahmed Farid as Egypt\'s new intelligence chief.
Earlier on Friday, the Egyptian army denied earlier reports that it had declared a state of emergency in the Suez and south Sinai regions after an armed attack on al-Arish airport.
The report by state newspaper al-Ahram, quoted the commander of the Third Field Army Osama Asakar saying that the \"state of readiness\" had been raised to its highest level in the two provinces due to the attack.
Al-Ahram said the decision came hours after suspected Islamic militants attacked four sites in northern Sinai, targeting two military checkpoints, a police station and El-Arish airport, where military aircraft are stationed.
Three weeks ago, armed men shot dead police officer Mohammed Abu Shaqra who served in the anti-terrorism squad at El-Arish.
A hive of militant activity, Egypt\'s Sinai Peninsula is a major route for drugs smuggling and human trafficking.
Ever since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in 2011, throwing his feared security services into disarray, the region has grown even more restless and awash with weapons.
Attacks on police and soldiers, and abductions of tourists, in the sparsely populated peninsula have surged since Mubarak\'s overthrow as have cross-border attacks on Israel.
In August 2012, suspected Islamist gunmen killed 16 Egyptian soldiers near Israel\'s border and commandeered an armoured vehicle into Israel, where they were stopped by a helicopter strike.
Bedouin activists who populate the Sinai have long complained of the government\'s neglect of the region, saying they have been treated as second-class citizens ever since Israel handed back the peninsula it had seized in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Meanwhile, Egypt\'s Prosecutor General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud resigned from his post on Friday \"for fear of possible conflict of interest\", the state television reported.
Additional source: AFP