A
car bomb killed at least 25 Egyptian security personnel in the Sinai
Peninsula on Friday, security sources said, in some of the worst
violence against the state since Islamist President Mursi was overthrown
last year.
More than 25 people were wounded in the attack in the al-Kharouba area northwest of al-Arish, near the border with the Gaza Strip,
the sources said. Medical sources said they expected the number of
casualties to increase because some of the wounded were in critical
condition. The attack targeted two armoured vehicles stopped at a checkpoint near an army installation, the sources said.
Security
officials gave conflicting accounts, with one Sinai-based official
saying the attack was not a car bomb but was instead a rocket-propelled
grenade operation. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called
for the National Defence Council to convene for an emergency meeting in
response to what his office called “a terrorist attack”.
Security forces face a Islamist insurgency that
has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since the army toppled
President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood last year after mass
protests against his rule. Most attacks have been in Sinai.
Six soldiers were killed on Sunday by a roadside bomb southwest of al-Arish.
Egypt’s
military had made some progress in containing the Sinai-based
insurgency but security officials have expressed concern that Islamic
State militants who control parts of Iraq and Syria have forged ties
with radical Islamist groups in Egypt.
(REUTERS)
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