BREAKING: 4 security forces killed, several others wounded and 4 ISIS terrorists eliminated in a terror attack on a security checkpoint in Al Arish, northern Sinai.

According to local reports, the security forces thwarted a major terror attack.

On Thursday, the Al-Hayat newspaper reported that Egypt has targeted ISIS-linked terror groups operating in the Sinai Peninsula by demolishing most of the terror tunnels that connected the city of Rafah in Gaza and Egypt.

A senior Egyptian official told the newspaper that before 2011 there were 1,200 active terror tunnels at the Rafah border, some of which were used to transport terrorists, weapons and ammunition. The number of active tunnels later increased to 2,500 and several of them had several openings on the Egyptian side, often inside homes.

The Egyptian official added that most of the tunnels had been destroyed, some at a depth of 2.5 kilometers inside Egyptian territory.

Arab sources reported on Friday the killing of a Gazan terrorist identified as Ali al-Susi, a member of the ISIS-Sinai affiliate terror group Abu al-Hassan al-Maqdisi. The terrorist was eliminated during counter-terrorism operations by the Egyptian army in the Sinai Peninsula.

In February, the Egyptian army, backed by police and other security forces, launched a wide-scale operation to eradicate terrorists, mostly members of ISIS, behind a wave of terror attacks in the desert region. The operation is still ongoing.