At least 600 Egyptian security personnel have been killed in militant attacks since 2013
At
least 10 soldiers have been killed and injured in a wave of attacks by
suspected jihadist militants in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, the military
says.
More than 70 "terrorists" launched assaults on five different checkpoints near Sheikh Zuweid, a statement said. Twenty-three attackers were killed and three pick-up trucks armed with anti-aircraft guns were destroyed, it added. Initial reports said as many as 30 soldiers were killed, but they could not be independently verified. The attacks come two days after the assassination of Egypt's public prosecutor in the capital, Cairo. In
a speech at the funeral of Hisham Barakat on Tuesday, President Abdul
Fattah al-Sisi promised to enact legal reforms to ensure death sentences
could be enforced more swiftly for those convicted of acts of
terrorism. At
least 600 police officers and armed forces personnel have been killed
in the past two years in attacks claimed by jihadist militant groups
based in Sinai. Analysts said the car bomb attack that killed Mr
Barakat bore the hallmarks of a group that pledged allegiance to Islamic
State (IS) in November and changed its name from "Ansar Beit al-Maqdis"
(Champions of Jerusalem) to "Sinai Province".