Explosion kills 5 soldiers in western North Sinai, stray bullet injures laborer in Rafah

Five soldiers were killed on Tuesday in an explosion in Gelbana village on the westernmost outskirts of North Sinai, a security source told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

On the same day, a laborer was severely injured by bullet fire from an unknown source while working at a construction project in Rafah contracted to the Armed Forces Engineering Authority.

A medical source told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity that the laborer arrived at Al-Arish General Hospital in critical condition with a bullet lodged near his spine. 

Province of Sinai, the Islamic-State-affiliate in the peninsula, released a video on Friday claiming to show the aftermath of their attack on an Armed Forces Humvee west of Bir al-Abd.

The attack is the first of its kind in around two months and took place in an area that corresponds geographically with most recent operations carried out by the group. 

The explosion in Gelbana took place as soldiers were conducting a patrol near the village and instantly killed four conscripts and the vehicle commander, who was an officer in the Engineering Corps of the Armed forces, said the source. 

No details regarding either attack were published by the Armed Forces spokesperson, though local outlets in Sharqiya published news of funerals held this week for a captain and a conscript, while funerals were also reported for a conscript in Monufiya and another in Daqahlia.

While the Province of Sinai once conducted the majority of its operations in northeastern Sinai’s Sheikh Zuwayed and Rafah, more recent activities claimed by the militant group have tended to take place in the western reaches of the peninsula, toward the city of Bir al-Abd and in areas on the Sinai side of the Suez Canal that fall technically within the Port Said and Ismailia governorates.

In the east, Province of Sinai militants have surrendered to the Armed Forces over the past few months while others have been captured or killed by the Union of Sinai Tribes — a contingent of tribes fighting alongside the government and led by the Tarabin tribe.

Province of Sinai militants have targeted laborers at infrastructure and development projects contracted to the Armed Forces Engineering Authority like Tuesday’s incident in Rafah on a number of occasions in the past, while deaths due to stray bullets are also common, though the number of incidents has substantially decreased in recent years.