Army forces affiliated with the second field army managed on Wednesday to kill three militants in North Sinai during a sweeping operation that also targeted weaponry and vehicles used by the militants, the army’s official spokesperson said in a statement.
“As a continuation of the Egyptian armed forces’ efforts in sweeping terrorist stationing points and chase militants, forces affiliated to the second field army managed on Wednesday to kill three militants in North Sinai, seize two guns, and destroy four-wheel-drive vehicles used by militants,” the statement read.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, anonymous militants blew up a health facility located inside El Sabil village, at the entrance to Al-Arish in North Sinai. The attack was conducted through the usage of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), according to the state-run newspaper Akhbar Al-Youm.
The newspaper quoted anonymous sources, who said that unidentified persons planted IEDs and remotely detonated them, in order to prevent security forces from accessing the facility.
The newspaper also noted that the health facility has been bombed last year in the same way through the usage of an IED and has since been rebuilt.
Since 2013, state security forces, represented by both the army and the police, have been engaged in violent clashes with “Sinai Province,” known previously as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis. In 2014, the group declared its affiliation to IS and has launched deadly attacks on army and police checkpoints.
Over the course of the last two years, the Egyptian armed forces launched counterattacks against militant stationing points across the Sinai Peninsula, where the group is based, particularly in the cities of Sheikh Zuweid, Rafah, and Al-Arish.
