Egyptian troops and helicopter gunships attacked Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula on Friday in a drive to crush a security threat now spilling over into the rest of the country.
Three soldiers were wounded in clashes in three separate villages, security officials said.
Islamist militant attacks have increased in the desert region adjoining Israel and the Gaza Strip and elsewhere in Egypt since the army ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi on July 3 following mass protests against his rule.
Photo: AFP
Rocket and grenade attacks on soldiers and policemen take place in the Sinai nearly every day and about 50 have been killed since July.
A Sinai-based militant group claimed responsibility for a failed suicide bombing attack on the interior minister in Cairo last week.
In the latest operation, security forces detained two wanted men and seized a rocket, dynamite used to build bombs and 200 books on Islamic fundamentalism, security officials said.
Authorities are also focused on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, which had held power for just over a year when Morsi was ousted.
Thousands of pro-Morsi protesters marched after Friday prayers in several areas of Cairo after authorities boosted security in sites where crowds had gathered in the past.
In Alexandria, one protester died from a gunshot wound and four others were wounded, medical and security sources said.
At a march in the southern city of Beni Suef, a Morsi supporter was stabbed to death in clashes with opponents.
Demonstrations were also held in the cities of Fayoum, Alexandria, Assiut and Qena.
State television said clashes broke out between Brotherhood supporters and residents of the Nile Delta town of Mahala.
Security forces have killed hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and arrested thousands in one of the toughest crackdowns the group has faced in its 85-year history. It denies accusations that it has carried out terrorist acts.
Many Egyptians, disillusioned with Morsi’s moves to give himself sweeping powers and his mismanagement of the economy, were relieved when he was removed and then detained.
The general who toppled him and promised a political “road map” that would lead to elections early next year, army chief General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, enjoys widespread popularity.
Speculation is growing that he will run for president.
Many Brotherhood members went underground. However, some still take part in marches, a risky step in a country where the authorities seem determined to crush the Islamists.
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has described the army-installed government’s crackdown against the Brotherhood as a “brutal crime” and urged Egyptians to resist what he called a campaign against Islam.
In an audio speech released a day after the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US, the former doctor condemned last month’s violent break-up of protest camps in Cairo, in which hundreds were killed, and the arrests of Islamists.
“This is an episode of a long drama that awaits Egyptians if they don’t unite to implement sharia Islamic law and free their country,” said al-Zawahiri, himself an Egyptian who was tortured by authorities under former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Al-Zawahri also said the US was conspiring in Egypt and called on Egyptians to fight the “oppression.”
If militant groups now turn their sights on Cairo, the move would further hurt the tourism industry and reeling economy, he added.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion