(MENAFN- Arab Times) Egyptian security forces have killed 98 militants in Sinai during a recent military operation, the military said on Friday. It was not possible to independently confirm the figure. Egypt is battling an insurgency that gained pace after the army overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement in mid- 2013 after mass protests against his rule. The insurgency, mounted by Islamic State's Egyptian affiliate, has killed hundreds of soldiers and police and has started to attack Western targets. In the latest fighting, four Egyptian soldiers were killed, the military said.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi describes Islamist militancy as an existential threat to Egypt, the most populous Arab state and a close US ally. Islamic State controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, has a presence in Libya and enjoys the support of militants in Egypt seeking to topple the Cairo government. An Egyptian woman and child were killed in a car bomb, and four soldiers died in a separate explosion Friday in the northern Sinai Peninsula, where the military is engaged in a sweeping campaign against jihadists, the army said.
The army said the woman and child were killed in a car bomb in Rafah, on the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip. The four soldiers were killed in a bomb attack during clashes with jihadists, also in northern Sinai, a spokesman said in a statement, without giving further details. On Monday, the military launched a vast offensive against militants affiliated to the extremist Islamic State group, which has seized control of swathes of Iraq and Syria.
The army said 232 jihadists had been killed in the operation. It was not possible independently to verify the claim. The army is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since 2013, when the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. Meanwhile, Washington is sending 75 extra troops to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to increase the safety of US forces there following a roadside bomb attack last week, the Pentagon said Thursday.
The bombing injured six international peacekeepers, including four Americans, who are in the region as part of a force that monitors a 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the deployment had been planned before the attack. "This is not a response to what happened with that IED (Improvised Explosive Device) attack a few days ago," Cook said. "We've been in discussions with key stakeholders regarding plans to increase force protection since early August." Cook said that in addition to the troops, the Pentagon is sending medical equipment including surgical teams. Egyptian security officials said the peacekeepers were hit by a bomb planted on a road leading from their base. The officials said Islamic State militants had placed bombs there aimed at passing Egyptian troops.
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