Explosive device allegedly defused near school in North Sinai

An explosive device was allegedly discovered and defused Sunday near Al-Zokhrofeya school building, Masaeid District, west of Arish in northern Sinai, privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported.

After receiving reports of a suspicious device near the school building, which was wired to an electric circuit, a bomb squad defused the device and took it to a safe place for disposal, state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

However, the head of independent Al-Shorouk newspaper’s Sinai bureau, Mostafa Singer, told Mada Masr that there were no eyewitnesses to the incident, which he found strange. “Schools are not targets for bombings in Sinai,” said Singer, who questioned the accuracy of the news report.

This is the latest in a series of incidents in Sinai. Earlier this month, the army fired upon a microbus driving toward the main gate of a military camp in Sheikh Zoweid, northern Sinai. The bus was loaded with explosives and blew up only a few meters from the gate, according to a military source quoted in local media. 

Regular attacks on security personnel and buildings in Sinai escalated after the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in July.

Whilst such explosions have been common in Sinai, the past few weeks have witnessed alleged attacks in other governorates, including Tuesday’s Mansoura explosion, killing 16, and an explosion near a public bus in Nasr City on Thursday that injured five.