Egypt foils attempt to breach western border

Xinhua | Updated: 2017-06-27 21:38

CAIRO - The Egyptian air forces have frustrated an attempt to penetrate the western borders and destroyed 12 vehicles loaded with weapons and ammunition, the Egyptian armed forces said in a statement on Tuesday.



"The armed forces raided the area after receiving an intelligence tip about gathering of large number of cars carrying weapons waiting to cross the borders," Tamer el-Refai, spokesperson of the armed forces said.



The Egyptian army has been conducting operations in the Western Desert to stop infiltration of militants or the smuggling of weapons through the Egyptian-Libyan border.



On the western border, the power vacuum in Libya has allowed a number of armed groups to proliferate including militants of the Islamic State.



On May 31, three army officers and one soldier were killed on the western border after an explosive belt belonging to terrorists blew up while the troops were combing the area.



Hundreds of Egyptian security personnel have been killed by Islamist militants, mostly in northern Sinai, since the ouster of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.



In May, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that Egypt has destroyed 300 vehicles trying to cross the border from Libya to carry out hostile operations in the country.



The Egyptian forces hit terrorist training camps in Libya on May 26 after the shooting attack that killed 28 Copts in Upper Egypt's Minya governorate.



"Egypt will not hesitate to target these terror camps anywhere," the president said in a televised speech.