Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a security convoy, through a video allegedly released by the group on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, 11 security personnel were killed after their security convoy hit a landmine on a road in North Sinai.
In the video, the security convoy can be seen moving along the Rafah-Sheikh Zuweid Road before exploding, releasing a thick cloud of black smoke into the sky. When the explosion takes place, a voice from behind the camera can be heard yelling “Allahu Akbar (God is Great)”.
Amongst the dead in the attack were one officer and ten conscripts.
At the end, the video shows weapons, identification cards and some money, believed to belong to the deceased security personnel.
Attacks on police and military targets in the restive Sinai Peninsula have been on the rise since former president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster last summer. Dozens of attacks have been claimed by Al-Qaeda-inspired militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maids, both in Sinai and across Egypt, including an assassination attempt against Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim.
On 28 August, the group released a video purportedly showing the beheading of four men whom they claim collaborated with Israeli intelligence. The four decapitated corpses were found in Sinai last month.
In April, the group was officially ruled a terrorist organisation by a Cairo court and designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the US State Department.
