CAIRO (Sputnik) — Egyptian soldiers have killed 14 members of a terrorist group in northern Sinai and arrested 13 militants over past five days, Egypt’s military spokesman Tamer Refaei said as quoted by local media Monday. As part of the security operation aimed at uprooting Takfiris terrorists, Egypt’s army also destroyed six stores belonging to terrorists, three car bombs, ten explosive devices and confiscated 530 gallons of fuel, the Egypt Independent newspaper reported citing Refaei. An Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula has gained pace since the military toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement, in 2013 following mass protests against him. Sinai Province, the militant group behind the insurgency, pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014 and has been accused of killing hundreds of soldiers and police since then. Militant activity in central Sinai is less frequent than in its more restive north, where Islamic State attacks on military and police checkpoints are common.
An Egyptian Army raid in central Sinai kills at least 14 ISIL militants.