Sinai militants ‘kill 14 Egyptian soldiers’ at checkpoint

At least 14 Egyptian security officers have been killed in an attack on a checkpoint near the city of Al-Arish in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, local sources told The New Arab.

The sources said that militants believed to be affiliated to IS attacked a checkpoint on the ring road surrounding al-Arish as people were holding dawn prayers marking the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which follows the month of Ramadan, on Wednesday morning.

Officials say that the militants seized an armoured vehicle from the checkpoint to make their getaway but a warplane chased them in the desert, killing at least five.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to reporters.

Read more: How a violent and lawless Sinai benefits Sisi

A previous attack on the same ring road by IS affiliated militants on the same ring road killed 15 soldiers last February.

Since early 2018, the Egyptian military have been engaged in a wide-scale operation to assert control over northern Sinai after IS-affiliated militants from the “Sinai Province” group have carried out hundreds of attacks on police and security forces throughout Sinai.

The operation was in response to an attack by militants on a mosque in north Sinai on 24 November 2017 which killed 311 Muslim worshippers.

Official figures say that 650 IS-affiliated fighters and 50 Egyptian soldiers have been killed in the operation.

Human Rights Watch has recently criticised both the Egyptian military and IS-affiliated militants, saying that both sides have committed war crimes against civilians.