Militants rammed military compound with car before opening fire in village of el-Barth, security officials say

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Militants killed at least 23 soldiers and injured dozens more in a car explosion and gun attack on an Egyptian military checkpoint in the north-eastern Sinai peninsula, officials have said. After nightfall, the Islamic State group issued a claim of responsibility, saying in an online statement that it had carried out the attack as the Egyptian army was preparing an assault on IS positions in Sinai. Egypt has for years battled militants in Sinai, where the jihadis have exploited the vast arid and underdeveloped region and its disgruntled Bedouin population as an ideal incubator for Islamic militancy even before the IS affiliate has emerged at the forefront of the insurgency. The assault started when a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint at a military compound in the village of el-Barth, southwest of the border town of Rafah, followed by heavy gunfire from dozens of masked militants on foot, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The militants arrived at the site of the checkpoint – located in a remote, desert area – in some 24 Land Cruiser SUVs, and opened fire on the soldiers with machine-guns for nearly half an hour, the officials said. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States strongly condemns the Sinai attack and continues “to stand with Egypt as it confronts terrorism.”

The security officials initially put the death toll at 10 but later told The Associated Press that more bodies were pulled from under the rubble of a nearby building that was used as a rest house for troops. He said the army on Friday foiled attacks that targeted a number of other checkpoints in the Rafah area and that 40 militants were killed. At least 26 Egyptian soldiers including a colonel were killed in a suicide bomb attack on an army checkpoint in northern Sinai, according to security sources.Another 40 fighters were killed in a subsequent gun battle with soldiers at the checkpoint, an army spokesperson said on Friday.The attack started when a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into the checkpoint at a military compound in the southern Rafah village of el-Barth, followed by heavy gunfire from dozens of masked fighters on foot, officials said.The dead included a high ranking special forces officer, Colonel Ahmed el-Mansi, and at least 26 soldiers were wounded in the attack.Sirens of ambulances were heard from a distance as they rushed to the site of the attack.The officials spoke to AP news agency on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorised to speak to the media.No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.Speaking to Al Jazeera from Bologna, Spain, Timothy Kaldas, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, said there was a high likelihood that the attack would be claimed by Wilayat Sinai, a group affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.The group frequently targets military and police personnel, he said, adding that Friday's attack was "unfortunately a very predictable type of attack and something we've seen regularly".Over the past months, ISIL has focused its attacks on Egypt's Christian minority and carried out at least four deadly attacks that killed dozens, prompting army chief-turned-President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi to declare a state of emergency in the country.The Sinai branch of ISIL appears to be the most resilient outside Syria and Iraq, where the so-called caliphate is witnessing its demise.The group's offshoot in Libya has been uprooted in months-long battles in the central city of Sirte while its branch in Yemen has failed to seize territories or compete with its al-Qaeda rivals.
Masked militants attack an Egyptian Army checkpoint in a village south of Rafah, North Sinai Governorate, killing at least 23 soldiers, including a high-ranking special forces colonel. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria later claims responsibility. The attack included VBIED and signal jamming.