Military targets attacked in Sinai, 6 dead

An attack on a military intelligence building in Rafah, Sinai today has been described by a security source as “a cowardly terrorist attack that is an attempt to respond to the broad Armed Forces military operation that started in North Sinai three days ago.”

Military spokesman Ahmed Ali, quoted by news agency ONA, said that at 8.45 am assailants used two cars loaded with large amounts of explosives against more than one military target.

The latest casualty figures put the number of soldiers killed in the attack at six, with 17 people injured, among them seven civilians. The military has now closed down the area.

Mostafa Singer, a journalist based in the area, told Mada Masr that two pick-up trucks attacked an army checkpoint using rocket-propelled grenades before driving to the military intelligence building where one truck exploded.

Egyptian state television reported that armed men fired RPGs at the intelligence headquarters after the blast.

News agency AFP reported that the attack on the military intelligence headquarters was followed minutes later by a blast at an army checkpoint.

Quoted by Al-Ahram, the military source said that suicide bombings “are evidence of the desperation of terrorists and militants who thought that they had succeeded in taking control of North Sinai and creating a new Kandahar.”

Another security source told ONA that the army is using Apache helicopters to comb the area and that all major entry roads have been closed. The Egyptian army division that covers the area, the Second Field Army, has been put on alert alongside the Interior Ministry.

Attacks against government and military targets in Sinai, a region that for decades has suffered political and social marginalization and economic deprivation, have increased since the ouster of former President Mohamad Morsi on July 3.