Egyptian military kills seven suspected militants in Sinai

Egypt's military said on Friday that seven suspected militants were killed in a raid carried out as part of its operations against insurgents in the restive Sinai Peninsula.

"The armed forces carried out a targeted operation that resulted in the killing of seven takfiris," the army said in a statement, employing a term used by Egyptian authorities for Islamist extremist militants.

The raid was part of "ongoing efforts of the armed forces to combat terrorism and based on intelligence indicating the presence of a terrorist outpost on a farm in North Sinai", the statement added.

One suspected militant died during the raid, while six others were killed after troops tracked them to a hideout.

The military also found 10 explosive devices, four explosive belts, several rifles and ammunition as well as various mobile phones and walkie-talkies as a result of the operation.

On 1 May, the Egyptian military said that it had killed eighteen militants in a similar raid. Local sources, however, cast doubt on the official account and said that the military had actually summarily executed 18 arbirtarily detained prisoners.

Read more: Egypt 'summarily executes' 18 arbitrarily detained civilians in Sinai, in 'IS campaign'

Security forces have been battling a long-running Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula -- in Egypt's northeast -- that is spearheaded by a the Sinai Province (Wilayat Sina) local affiliate of the Islamic State group.

The fighting intensified after the military's 2013 coup against Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president.

In February 2018, security forces launched a nationwide operation against militants, focused on North Sinai.

More than 930 suspected militants have been killed in the area along with dozens of security personnel, according to official figures.

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