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Militants Kill at Least 26 Egyptian Soldiers in Sinai Peninsula Attack 31 Egyptian Soldiers Are Killed as Militants Attack in Sinai
(about 7 hours later)
EL ALAMEIN, Egypt — A militant attack on a security checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt on Friday left at least 26 soldiers dead, according to Egyptian security officials. It was the deadliest attack on the Egyptian military in many years. EL ALAMEIN, Egypt — Two attacks on Egyptian military positions in the Sinai Peninsula on Friday killed at least 31 soldiers, according to security officials and the state news media.
The attack was marked by several explosions, which may have been caused by a car bomb and heavy weapons, officials said, based on early accounts. The first attack killed at least 28 soldiers, making it the deadliest attack on the Egyptian military in many years and the biggest defeat in its 15-month battle against Sinai-based Islamist militants that began with the military’s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013. At least 28 others were injured, the state news media said.
The episode highlighted the government’s struggle to tamp down an Islamist insurgency in Egypt that has claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers, police officers and other security officials since the military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in 2o13. The scale of the attack underscored the difficult challenge the Egyptian government continues to face in re-establishing firm control of the northern Sinai, near the border with Israel and the Gaza Strip. Egyptian officials have said repeatedly that they have largely contained the insurgency there, but the complexity of Friday’s attack, said to involve multiple vehicles and heavy weapons, suggested that the militants were growing more sophisticated.
Though the government has said repeatedly that its forces have largely contained the insurgency, the events on Friday indicated that the militants still have the ability to carry out sophisticated attacks. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who led the military takeover last year, convened an emergency meeting of Egypt’s top generals in response to the attack. He declared a state of emergency in parts of the Sinai, including a curfew from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m.
A Sinai official told The Associated Press that the militants had used several kinds of weapons to attack the checkpoint, including rocket-propelled grenades and a mortar round that struck a tank containing explosives and ammunition, leading to further explosions. In Washington, Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement that “the United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack.” She added, “The United States continues to support the Egyptian government’s efforts to counter the threat of terrorism in Egypt as part of our commitment to the strategic partnership between our two countries.”
The military did not immediately provide a detailed account of the attack, which occurred about 2 p.m. near the northern Sinai town of Al-Arish, according to a security official. The first, larger attack took place at about 2 p.m. Friday near the town of Sheikh Zuwaid, a hub of Islamist militancy where insurgents sometimes set up their own temporary checkpoints on the highways. The target of the attack was a heavily guard army checkpoint at a desert-road intersection known as Karm al Qawadis, where the military typically keeps six armored vehicles, two tanks and a tent camp, residents said.
Militants operating mainly in Sinai started a campaign of deadly attacks against Egypt’s security services beginning last summer. The militant groups, some of them previously unknown, said the attacks were in retaliation for a brutal government crackdown on Islamist supporters of Mr. Morsi, including the imprisonment of thousands of people. Unlike most previous attacks, this one was carried out in two stages. A car bomb initially killed as many as 17 soldiers, according to residents and security officials. Then, when soldiers rushed to the scene, armed men on foot and in a vehicle opened fired, killing at least 10 more.
A Sinai official told The Associated Press that the militants used rocket-propelled grenades, among other weapons. A mortar round set off a second explosion by striking a tank containing explosives and ammunition.
The second attack occurred about three hours later, in the nearby town of El Arish, the provincial capital, according to the Egyptian state media. Militants opened fired on a military checkpoint there and killed three more soldiers.
Western diplomats briefed on intelligence reports have said privately for weeks that the level of antigovernment violence in the northern Sinai was rising again, despite the contrary claims of Egyptian officials. Attacks by militants in the Sinai have killed hundreds of soldiers and police officers since last year’s takeover, and including Friday’s attacks the militants have killed more than 40 this week alone, according to the Egyptian state media.
Militants have also continued to set off occasional bombs in Cairo. An explosion this week near Cairo University injured at least 11 people — six of them security officers. A bomb outside the Foreign Ministry late last month killed two police officers.