Army kills 13 "terrorists" in Sinai raids – spokesman

Wednesday 31-12-2014 01:10 PM
Army kills 13

The Egyptian army sent reinforcements to the Sinai Peninsula on Monday - Aswat Masriya

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CAIRO, Dec 31 (Aswat  Masriya) – Egypt's armed forces killed 13 "terrorists" during raids on "terrorist hotbeds" in the Sinai Peninsula from Saturday to Wednesday, the armed forces spokesman said on Wednesday.

Spokesman Mohamed Samir added in a statement that security forces arrested 388 in the peninsula. They included seven wanted persons and 98 suspects.

Army forces also destroyed 110 "terrorist headquarters", Samir said.

Militants have stepped up attacks targeting security forces in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, since the army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, which followed mass protests against his rule.

At least 30 military personnel were killed in a suicide blast which targeted a security checkpoint in Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid on October 24, in the worst militant attack since Mursi's ouster. 

Egypt's most dangerous militant group, the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video released on November 14, shortly after pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency and a nighttime curfew in parts of the Sinai Peninsula in response to the attack.

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