Dozens of troops were killed in a gun battle with fighters in the country's western desert.

Egypt's police force have suffered their largest death toll after an attack in the Sinai Peninsula.

A convoy of police and security forces were ambushed in the Egyptian desert. They were following a tip-off about a possible hideout of an armed group near the Bahariya Oasis.

At least 52 of them were killed and six more were wounded in a gun battle that followed. Fifteen of the suspected attackers were also killed.

Egypt has been under a state of emergency since a number of attacks targeted minority Coptic Christians earlier this year, killing scores of them.

A violent anti-government campaign in the Sinai has grown since the military overthrew democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013.

So, how is the Egyptian government dealing with recurrent attacks nationwide?

Presenter: Jane Dutton

Guests:

Timothy Kaldas - non-resident fellow at Tahrir Institute for Middle East Politics

Ahmed Badawi - senior researcher for Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics at the Free University of Berlin

Ian Black - visiting senior fellow at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics

Source: Al Jazeera News