Egyptian army accused of killing two Sinai children

An Egyptian rights group has accused the military of killing two children in custody on Monday as IS militants step up their insurgency in the restive Sinai province.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

09 March, 2016

Civilians in Sinai have long been caught between militants and the Egyptian army [AFP]

Egyptian cousins Jamal Salim al-Ghoul, 13, and Mohammed Eshtawi Ghoul, 12, were detained by Egyptian forces on Monday and killed hours later according to the Sinai Observatory for Human Rights.

They were arrested at gun-point while working in a field in Central Sinai, along with a number of other locals including a 63-year-old man and his deaf son, according to the Observatory.

The group says the two boys were killed in custody according to local sources.

The Observatory urged Egyptian authorities to stop the systematic violations of the rights of people in Sinai, and to hold the perpetrators of crimes to account.

Meanwhile the security situation in Sinai continued its rapid deterioration as the local Islamic State affiliate Wiliyat Sinai, stepped up attacks against Egyptian security forces.

On Wednesday an Egyptian conscript was killed and another was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a gas station belonging to the army in Sheikh Zuwaid, North Sinai.

The Islamic State group claimed the explosion killed more than one conscript.

Dozens of Egyptian soldiers have been killed as clashes between militants and the Egyptian security forces escalate in the cities of al-Arish, Sheikh Zuwaid and Rafah.

Militants, who have long used Sinai as a base, launched an insurgency after the military overthrew Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.