Militants fired a barrage of rockets and set off a car bomb earlier yesterday killing at least 26 people, mostly soldiers, in Egypt’s North Sinai province, where security forces are battling a raging Islamist insurgency.
The deadly assaults were swiftly claimed by the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group that has captured chunks of territory in Syria and Iraq.
Jihadists have regularly attacked security forces in the Sinai Peninsula since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in July 2013.
They say this is in retaliation for a bloody government crackdown against Morsi supporters that has left hundreds dead, thousands jailed and dozens sentenced to death after speedy trials that the United Nations says are “unprecedented in recent history”.
The main focus of Thursday’s attacks was El-Arish, the provincial capital, where a military base, a police headquarters, a residential complex for army and police officers and several army checkpoints were targeted in the biggest such simultaneous assaults since October, officials said.
Twenty-five people, mostly soldiers, were killed when several rockets and a suicide car bomber struck the targets within minutes.
“Terrorist elements have attacked several police and army headquarters and facilities using explosive-laden vehicles and rockets,” the military said in a statement, adding there was an exchange of fire between troops and militants.
The self proclaimed “Islamic State” terror group’s Egyptian affiliate, Ansar Beit al-Maqids, claimed the assaults in a Twitter account linked to it.
