Five Soldiers Killed in Ambush in Egypt’s North Sinai

Five Egyptian soldiers were killed late Sunday in a militant attack in North Sinai, announced Egypt’s Armed Forces spokesperson on Monday morning.

The gunmen reportedly stopped a vehicle coming from Ismailia governorate, situated on the west bank of the Suez Canal, and opened fire on the soldiers, leaving them dead. They didn’t attack the driver and the rest of the passengers, reported Reuters.

Reuters reported that the attackers were believed to be linked to Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis, a group affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group.

Egypt’s armed forces spokesman mourned the soldiers in a post on his official Facebook page, saying they were killed at the hands of “treacherous takfiri elements in Sinai”, without mentioning any further details about the attack.

Following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi, who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood, militancy inside Egypt has seen a significant rise. North Sinai has been at the epicentre of this insurgency, with a number of attacks targeting security personnel, police officers, as well as high-ranking judges.

An estimated 2100 people were killed in North Sinai in 2015, including roughly 1800 described by the military as “terrorists,” 150 civilians, 40 police officers and conscripts, and 140 military personnel.

This content is by Aswat Masriya and Egyptian Streets

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