Islamic militants yesterday unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks, including a suicide car bombing, on Egyptian army checkpoints in the restive north of the Sinai Peninsula, killing at least 30 soldiers, security and military officials said.
The scope and intensity of the morning assaults underscored the tenacity and the resources available to the militants, who have for years battled security forces in northern Sinai, but stepped up their insurgency over the past two years.
The attacks took place just south of the town of Sheikh Zuweid and targeted at least six military checkpoints, the officials said.
The militants also took soldiers captive and seized weapons and several armored vehicles, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
At least 40 other soldiers were wounded, the officials said.
As fighting raged, an army Apache gunship destroyed one of the armored carriers captured by the militants as they were driving it away, the officials added.
Egypt’s military spokesman, Brigadier General Mohammed Samir, said fighting was still underway in the area between the armed forces and the militants. His statement put the number of soldiers killed so far at 10, but the conflicting numbers could not immediately be reconciled in the immediate aftermath of a major attack.
Samir’s statement, posted on Facebook, said about 70 militants attacked five checkpoints in northern Sinai, and that Egyptian troops killed 22 of them and destroyed three all-terrain vehicles fitted with anti-aircraft guns.
The officials said scores of militants were besieging Sheikh Zuweid’s main police station, shelling it with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and exchanging fire with dozens of policemen inside.
Northern Sinai over the past two years has witnessed a series of complex and successful attacks targeting Egyptian security forces, many of which have been claimed by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but it bore all the hallmarks of the Islamic State group affiliate.
Officials said the attackers used mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.
Two of the six checkpoints were completely destroyed, one was targeted by a suicide car bombing and the second by mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Army checkpoints in the area routinely have between 50 and 60 soldiers.
The attacks came just two days after the assassination in Cairo of the nation’s top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, and one day after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi vowed to step up a two-year crackdown on militants.
Al-Sisi said the government was ready to brush aside criticisms and free the judiciary’s hand for a “battle” the nation is prepared to wage.
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