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Egyptian forces kill seven gunmen in Sinai crackdown

Arab World Materials 12 August 2012 23:06 (UTC +04:00)
Egyptian security forces killed seven suspected insurgents Sunday in an open-ended crackdown to quell militancy in the Sinai Peninsula.
Egyptian forces kill seven gunmen in Sinai crackdown

Egyptian security forces killed seven suspected insurgents Sunday in an open-ended crackdown to quell militancy in the Sinai Peninsula.

The crackdown comes after an attack last weekend in which suspected Islamist militants killed 16 Egyptian security forces before attempting to infiltrate into Israel, dpa reported.

"Forces from the Egyptian army and police attacked a hideout of a militant group in the village of al-Gur (in central Sinai). A fierce showdown erupted during which the army used artillery shells, resulting in killing seven wanted elements," a security source told dpa.

An eighth suspect was seriously injured and taken to a military hospital, added the source.

Separately, security forces seized a cache of bombs and mortar shells after arresting three suspected militants in the area of al-Kharbua, in north Sinai, said the source.

Earlier, unknown gunmen launched a string of attacks against multinational peacekeepers and security personnel in Sinai.

Insurgents attacked a camp of peacekeeping observers in the area of Um Shayhan, central Sinai, positioned there under the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

However, Egyptian state media said the attack targeted a nearby army outpost, whose personnel returned the gunmen's fire. No casualties were reported.

Meanwhile, more gunmen mounted separate attacks against two security checkpoints in the town of Sheikh Zuwaid near the border with the Gaza Strip, reported the state-run newspaper Al Ahram.

Security and military forces exchanged fire with the attackers, who fled into a nearby mountainous area, added the online edition of the paper, quoting witnesses. No casualty figure was given.

Separately, three policemen died and four were injured in an accident Sunday when their vehicle flipped over in central Sinai while they were hunting for suspected gunmen, reported state television.

On Tuesday, the Egyptian army began a high-profile offensive, targeting the strongholds of Islamist militants suspected of killing 16 Egyptian soldiers in the border town of Rafah, near Gaza, two days earlier.

The attack was the deadliest against the Egyptian military in decades.

Additional troops and military hardware, including tanks and rocket launchers, arrived Sunday in Al Arish, the capital of North Sinai, to beef up the offensive.

The army has said its campaign has resulted in initial success and would continue for an unspecified period of time in the huge desert area.

The operation, codenamed "Eagle", is Egypt's largest since 1973, when it launched a surprise attack on Israel to recapture the peninsula, which Israel had seized six years earlier.

The crackdown marks a U-turn in Egypt's response to security breakdown in Sinai.

Over the past year, Islamist militants are believed to have been responsible for several attacks on a pipeline that exports gas to Israel, as well as raids on police stations in the sparsely populated peninsula.

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