2 dead, 18 injured in bombings after military announces control over Sinai

Two soldiers were killed and 16 others were injured when a roadside bomb exploded in the North Sinai city of Arish on Saturday, the Interior Ministry announced on its official Facebook page.

The bomb exploded just as a vehicle carrying soldiers was passing through the city.

A similar incident injured two other soldiers on Friday, according to privately owned Al Watan, when a bomb exploded on the ring road in southern Arish as a military tank was passing by.

The incidents took place shortly after the military asserted it had reclaimed “tight control over all roads” in the cities of Rafah, Sheikh Zuwayed and Arish, in a statement marking the end of the first phase of Operation Martyr’s Rights.

The military had announced the start of the operation, pegged as a final and decisive battle against terrorism in the peninsula, on September 7. The Armed Forces spokesperson’s Facebook page posts daily tallies of the operation’s results, indicating that the military killed and arrested dozens of terrorists since the operation began.

According to the privately owned Youm7, the operation has left 535 terrorists dead and 634 arrested, and the military has managed to destroy 613 terrorist hubs, 38 explosives storehouses and 111 vehicles.