(MENAFN- Arab Times) Egyptian warplanes killed 25 Islamist militants in North Sinai on Saturday, security sources said, as the Egyptian president visited the province after a major escalation of the conflict there.
The sources said the air strikes hit militant targets near the town of Sheikh Zuweid, destroying weapons and explosives caches. They also said security forces had found about half a tonne of explosives in a tunnel on the border between the Sinai and Gaza.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi inspected soldiers and police in El-Arish, the provincial capital, on Saturday, the presidency said in statement. Sisi, dressed in military garb for the first time since becoming president just over a year ago, told troops at least 200 militants had been killed in the fighting in recent days, but added: "For me to say that things are under control is not enough, things are totally stable. "I tell Egyptians " the size of forces here (in Sinai) is one percent of Egypt's army." Militants launched a coordinated assault on military checkpoints in North Sinai on Wednesday, leading to day-long fighting which left more than 100 militants and 17 soldiers dead, the army said.
Egyptian air strikes killed 23 Islamist militants the next day, security sources said. North Sinai is the epicentre of an insurgency in which an Islamic State-affiliated group called Sinai Province is most active. The Sinai Peninsula borders the Gaza Strip, Israel and the Suez Canal.
The insurgency, aimed at toppling the Cairo government, has intensified since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi after mass protests against his rule in 2013. Government officials have accused Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood of being linked to the recent Sinai attacks and a Cairo bomb that killed Egypt's top public prosecutor on Monday.
The Brotherhood denies any involvement in violence. "There is a clear coordination and synchronization in all of the attacks recently carried out between the Brotherhood and its allies and affiliates," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. On Friday, Sinai Province said in a statement posted on Twitter by supporters it had launched three Grad rockets towards "occupied Palestine". Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the statements.
An Israeli military source said the rockets landed in Israel without causing any casualties and had been fired from Sinai. Egypt's president said Saturday the situation in the restive Sinai Peninsula, where dozens of soldiers, jihadists and civilians have been killed this week in yet more violence, is "totally stable". Former army chief Abdel Fattah el- Sisi was speaking during an unannounced visit to the Sinai, dressed again in military fatigues, to rally troops following a wave of attacks there by Islamic State group jihadists. The army, police and even officials have regularly come under fire, not only in the Sinai but also in Cairo since then army chief Sisi ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi two years ago. The jihadists say they are acting in response to the bloody repression launched by the authorities after Morsi's overthrow, which has seen at least 1,400 people killed and thousands more jailed. Most of the attacks on the security forces are claimed by a group calling itself the "Sinai Province".
Formerly known as Ansar Beit althat Maqdis, it changed its name when it pledged allegiance to IS last November. In remarks broadcast on television, Sisi said: "To say that everything is under control is not enough. The situation is totally stable." He was speaking from an army base at an undisclosed location in the Sinai, where he was also shown inspecting captured weapons. The army has said 17 soldiers and 100 militants were killed on Wednesday, but medical and security officials said the death toll was at least 70 people - mostly soldiers - as well as dozens of jihadists. "I have come to salute the heroes of the armed forces and to express to them my recognition," he was quoted by the army's spokesman as saying. "We are still recovering the bodies of terrorists from the latest attack," Sisi said. Wednesday's attacks in Sinai came two days after the daylight murder of chief state prosecutor Hisham Barakat in a Cairo car bombing.
The foreign ministry said the murder of Barakat and the Sinai attacks "affirm the presence of organised terrorist activity perpetrated by the Muslim Brotherhood" - Morsi's blacklisted movement. A statement said the Brotherhood "has declared war on Egypt during the holy month of Ramadan" when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri told reporters that Brotherhood officials "operating from other countries" could be orchestrating the attacks. Egypt has jailed most of the group's top leaders are in jail. Officials regularly blame all attacks on the Brotherhood, the country's biggest political movement which staged major electoral gains between the 2011 ouster of Mubarak and election of Morsi.
Sisi said the purpose of Wednesday's attacks was to mark the second anniversary of Morsi's ouster by "announcing the establishment of an Islamic province in Sinai", but that "plot was foiled". Sisi, who has pledged to eliminate the militants, was faced with more deadly violence on Saturday, but said the theatre of operations was miniscule in comparison with the size of the Sinai. "Sinai is 60,000 square kms (but) Rafah, Sheikh Zuweid and El-Arish form less than 5 percent of its area," he said, referring to deadly incidents on Saturday. In one, a woman and two children died when a shell slammed into a house in Sheikh Zuweid.
It was not immediately clear who fired the shell, which also seriously wounded another woman and a teenage girl. Separately, a roadside bomb targeting police and army vehicles killed a fiveyear- old child in the town of Rafah on the border with the Gaza Strip. Three other children and a woman were wounded. In his speech, Sisi said he saluted "every home, every mother whose child has died a martyr or been wounded for Egypt". He also criticised the media coverage of Wednesday's attacks, saying it presented "an unreal image about Egypt, its stability and security. The purpose was to affect the will of the Egyptian people."
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