Egypt pounds Sinai militant positions, killing 23

CAIRO // The Egyptian military killed 23 extremists in dawn raids on Thursday in northern Sinai, a day after ISIL-linked militants attacked army positions in the restive peninsula and set off the bloodiest fighting in decades.

It came as two gunmen on a motorbike shot dead a traffic policeman in the city of Fayoum, south-west of Cairo.

The officer was also on a motorbike and heading home when the gunmen shot him. They fled after the assault.

The raids in Sinai took place just south of the border town of Rafah, a border town near the Gaza Strip.

Explosions and rising smoke in the area could be heard and seen from Gaza, as airstrikes continued in the afternoon and warplanes roared overhead. Armoured personnel carriers could also be seen manoeuvring in the area.

Officials said the army was also seeking out militants house to house in the town of Sheikh Zuweid – where dozens of militants attacked as many as 15 army checkpoints – and demining roads in and around the area that extremists had booby trapped with mines and improvised explosives devices.

Telephone and internet services were cut in the town, along with electricity supplies.

Wednesday’s assault was condemned by Dr Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, who said that Egypt will be victorious in its battle with militants.

“There is no doubt that the desperate terrorism war on Egypt on the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIL will fail because it is an unjust war,” Dr Gargash tweeted. “The trust in the victory of Egypt and its people is predominant.”

Egypt’s military has said it is “leading a vicious war against terrorism”.

“We have the will and determination to root out this black terrorism,” it said on Wednesday, adding: “We will not stop until Sinai is cleansed of all the dens of terror.”

The attacks were also condemned by the Arab League, with its chief, Nabil Al Arabi, urging the international community to “support the Egyptian government’s efforts in fighting terrorist groups”.

The United States national security council, meanwhile, said it “will continue to assist Egypt in addressing these threats to its security”.

The Sinai attacks were the most brazen in their scope since extremists stepped up their violence in 2013 following the army’s overthrow of former president Mohammed Morsi.

Militants took over rooftops and fired rocket-propelled grenades at a police station in Sheikh Zuweid after mining its exits to block reinforcements.

“For hours the terrorists moved freely in the streets which they had mined,” said Ayman Mohsen, a resident of the town who witnessed Wednesday’s clashes.

“They fired rockets and bullets at the army camp in Zuhour and the Sheikh Zuweid police station.”

Late on Wednesday, a resident of Sheikh Zuweid speaking in Cairo said that many civilians in the town were trapped by the fighting and a military siege, with no water or electricity. He added that many residents were trying to flee to El Arish, the area’s largest city.

Sinai Province, which has pledged allegiance to ISIL, claimed the assault. The group said its militants surrounded the police station after launching attacks on 15 checkpoints and security installations using several suicide car bombers and rockets.

A newspaper close to the Egyptian government said on Thursday that the militants who carried out the Sinai attacks had used sophisticated weaponry, including Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles.

In a graphic on its front page, El Watan said the attackers also used mortars, anti-aircraft guns and other guided missiles.

The assault was similar to a series of ambushes carried out on April 2 in which dozens of militants attacked checkpoints, killing 15 soldiers.

The army said that 17 troops and 90 militants were killed in the fighting on Wednesday, but security officials and media reports said that dozens of soldiers and some 100 militants had died.

Graphic photographs released by the military showed the bodies of extremists, wearing desert combat fatigues and ammunition pouches.

Egypt responded to the growing insurgency on Wednesday by passing a controversial antiterror law and requesting that the appeals process be shortened, in measures it said would “achieve swift justice and revenge for our martyrs”.

The assault came two days after the assassination of Egypt’s chief prosecutor and followed a vow by president Abdel Fattah El Sisi to step up the legal battle against militants, including the possibility of fast-track executions.

Troops regularly come under attack in the Sinai, where militants have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since Mr Morsi’s overthrow.

In January, a rocket and car bomb attack on a military base, police headquarters and residential complex for troops and police killed at least 24 people, most of them soldiers.

The attacks have come despite stringent security measures in the Sinai, including a night-time curfew and the creation of a buffer zone along the Gaza border.

Analysts said the army lacked expertise in fighting the insurgents.

“It’s not putting in the right units. The groups need to be chased by special forces and what the army is doing is that it is deploying regiments. Sending F-16s does not work,” said Professor Mathieu Guidere, a specialist on extremist groups at France’s University of Toulouse.

* Associated Press with additional reporting by Ayesha Al Khoori and Agence France-Presse