IS militants kill two members of tribal militia in Egypt’s Sinai

Two members of tribal militias supporting the Egyptian army were killed on Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula in an attack by militants from the local affiliate of the Islamic State extremist group.

Tribal sources told The New Arab’s Arabic-language service that militants from IS’s “Sinai Province” affiliate attacked a militia group belonging to local tribes in the village of Matalla west of Rafah, near Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip.

The two militia members killed were named as Yunis Al-Sharoukh and Youssef Attar Al-Raqiba, both from the Rumeilat tribe.

Two other people were injured. The dead and wounded were taken to a military hospital in Al-Arish, the capital of North Sinai.

Dozens of militia members from Bedouin tribes have been killed or wounded in recent weeks in attacks by the “Sinai Province” IS affiliate.

An IS-led insurgency against the Egyptian state has been going on in the Sinai Peninsula for many years and exacerbated following current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s 2013 military coup.

Earlier on Saturday, IS-affiliated militants released 15 people from the Dawaghra family hours after taking them hostage in a raid on an area near Bir Al-Abd in northwestern Sinai.