Egypt soldiers killed in Sinai
Published on Wednesday, September 11, 2013
5:31 AM //
Defence
Islamist militants have carried out a fresh attack Wednesday against the Egyptian army in the unstable Sinai Peninsula where six soldiers were killed in the explosion of two car bombs in full military operation against radical groups.
"Elements Islamist terrorists carried out a cowardly attack this morning with two cars packed with large quantities of explosives, which killed six soldiers and wounded 17 people," including seven civilians, said a military spokesman in a statement.
According to officials, a powerful explosion targeted the headquarters of the intelligence services of the army in Rafah, Gaza border town, followed a few minutes later by an attack against a military road checkpoint nearby.
Witnesses said the powerful blast shattered the windows of buildings in the Imam Ali area in Rafah. The military intelligence headquarters is located in a highly secure and surrounded by dams traffic control area.
The Rafah crossing point with the Gaza Strip was closed after the attack and all roads to and from the headquarters were closed while soldiers searched the area in search of suspects.
Since the dismissal of the army of Islamist elected President Mohamed Morsi on July 3, and the extremely bloody crackdown on protests demanding his return, the murderous Islamic radicals to the police attacks have increased in the Sinai (is ).
The army retaliated by throwing a major offensive there more than a week, bombing dens jihadists it considers "terrorists" almost daily.
Radical Islamist groups, some of whom have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda, have established their rear bases in this region mainly populated by Bedouins in conflictual relations with the central government and also theater multiple traffic along the Israeli border.
There are six days in Cairo, a suicide car bomb targeted but left unscathed the Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, considered one of the main architects of the crackdown that has, from the August 14, at least a thousand deaths, pro-Morsi demonstrators for the vast majority.
The attack was claimed by a jihadist group in Sinai who pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda, Ansar al-Beit Maqdess to avenge the death of Islamist demonstrators.
The group has threatened to launch new attacks on police, the interior minister, but General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Chief of Staff of the Army and real strong man power .
The military, who deposed and arrested Mr. Morsi, the only head of state ever elected democratically in Egypt have set up a transitional government responsible for organizing legislative and presidential elections in early 2014.
But since the dispersion in the blood of two giant rallies pro-Morsi on 14 August in Cairo, the army and the police are engaged in a campaign of repression without thank you supporters of Morsi, especially members of his brotherhood the Muslim Brotherhood.
The most active Muslim Brotherhood activists were decimated and the leaders of the Brotherhood were arrested and charged in the courts of "murder" or "incitement to murder".
Even if the army and the new government seem supported by a large majority of the population, which showed millions of end June to demand the departure of Mr. Morsi, experts fear a bombing campaign against the radical groups "stroke military state. "
Military operations have redoubled in intensity after a wave of violence against the security forces especially in the Sinai, where August 19, 25 policemen were killed in the deadliest attack in years.
In two months, the military has assured killing a hundred insurgents in the Sinai and said that they had killed at least 58 police officers, 23 soldiers and 17 civilians.
