At least 5 Egyptian soldiers were killed in an attack on two military checkpoints by alleged Islamist militants in the north of the Sinai peninsula, according to media reports on Sunday.
The checkpoints are located near the town of Sheikh Zuweid and has already been attacked earlier this month, the BBC reported citing Egyptian security sources.
Earlier in July, Islamic State (IS)-affiliated extremists, Wilayat Sinai, carried out a number of assaults on Egyptian army’s checkpoints in Sinai, killing up to 20 servicemen.
The extremists took responsibility for a rocket strike on an Egyptian Navy frigate near the Sinai Peninsula Thursday, publishing photos of the attack on Twitter.
Wilayat Sinai, translated as the Sinai Province, is a part of the Egypt-based Ansar Bait al-Maqdis jihadist group, which pledged allegiance to the IS in November 2014.
Sinai is one of the most troubled provinces of Egypt in terms of extremist activity. The attacks became recurrent after the 2013 overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi and the subsequent crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood movement.
بالفيديو… القوات المسلحة تواصل دك معاقل الإرهاب فى العريش والشيخ زويد…ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ…
Posted by الصفحة الرسمية للمتحدث العسكري للقوات المسلحة on Saturday 18 July 2015
