(AFP File Photo)
Four suspects were arrested and eight hideouts were destroyed on Monday during security campaigns in the North Sinai city of Sheikh Zuweid, according to state-run news agency MENA .
The suspects are currently under investigation to confirm the extent of their involvement in the “terrorist events”, MENA reported.
On Sunday, meanwhile, state-owned Al-Ahram reported that unidentified militants bombed the gas pipeline in Al-Arish. The attack marks the second on the pipeline since the beginning of the month.
The security directorate and governorate officials could not be reached to confirm the incident.
Al-Arish-based journalist however Ahmed Abu Deraa told Daily News Egypt that the attack did not take place, and that gas is not pumping in Al-Arish due to threats to bomb gas lines.
The Arab Gas Pipeline links Port Said to Al-Arish to the port of Aqaba, in Jordan, with a separate branch connecting Al-Arish to the Israeli port of Ashkelon on the Mediterranean Sea, which has been closed since 2012.
It has been bombed 28 times since the 25 January Revolution.
The gas pipeline bombings are among several insurgent activities committed by Sinai-based militants that include attacks on security personnel and security facilities.
The armed forces undertook a series of counterinsurgency measures that include the creation of a 5km long buffer zone along the Gaza border to destroy all tunnels leading in and out of Sinai.
The first phase, which involved the demolition of 837 houses and the displacement of over 1,000 families, has already been completed.
More residents are currently being evacuated for the second phase of the buffer zone, with 313 houses destroyed so far out of a total of 1,220 houses in the area. Emergency compensation of EGP 1,500 will be given to each family evacuated from the second phase area, in addition to the compensation for the value of the homes destroyed.
The buffer zone was initially set to measure 1km in width, but it was expanded to cover an area extending 5km from the border.
The decision to expand the zone arrived following the discovery of the longest smuggling tunnel in December, which measured 1,700 metres and reached beyond the first and the second phases.
Despite the counterterrorism measures, insurgency in Sinai is on-going, with Sinai-based militant group ‘State of Sinai’, formerly known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, conducting attacks on security personnel. The latest and most prominent of these attacks was on 29 January, which targeted several security facilities in Al-Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, and left at least 30 security personnel dead. The group, however, claims to have killed “hundreds”.
