CAIRO: A powerful local tribe in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula says it killed eight suspected Daesh fighters in battle and captured three more.
The Tarabeen tribe has clashed repeatedly with a local Daesh affiliate in recent weeks, opening a new front against the insurgency raging in the northern Sinai, which borders Gaza and Israel.
Moussa Al-Delh, a senior member of the tribe, said the clashes broke out Tuesday in the town of Rafah along the Gaza border, and that no tribesmen were killed.
Egyptian security forces have been battling the extremists in the northern Sinai for years. The insurgency grew far more deadly following the military overthrow of an elected Islamist president in 2013. Daesh has claimed three recent church bombings on the mainland that killed dozens of worshippers.
Egypt tribesmen kill 8 suspected Daesh militants in Sinai
Egypt tribesmen kill 8 suspected Daesh militants in Sinai
Kurdish official says Kurds committed to deals with Damascus despite Aleppo violence
- Ahmad said that “we are committed to peace and to resolving problems through dialogue”
- She accused Syria’s authorities of “choosing the path of war” by attacking Kurdish districts in Aleppo
BEIRUT: Syria’s Kurds are committed to agreements reached with the government, a senior official from their administration told AFP on Friday, despite days of violence in the northern city of Aleppo.
The government and Kurdish forces have traded blame over who started the fighting on Tuesday, which came as they have struggled to implement a deal reached last March to merge the Kurds’ administration and military into the country’s new government.
Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast, said that “we are committed to peace and to resolving problems through dialogue. But until now, the government... does not want a solution.”
She accused Syria’s authorities of “choosing the path of war” by attacking Kurdish districts in Aleppo.
“With these attacks, the government side is seeking to put an end to the agreements that have been reached. We are committed to them and we are seeking to implement them,” she said.
The government announced a truce early Friday after days of deadly violence that has forced thousands to flee, and granted Kurdish fighters a deadline to leave two districts they control.
But the fighters were refusing to leave the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud areas and intended to “resist” the Syrian army encircling them, a statement by the local councils of the two neighborhoods said.
Ahmad said that “the United States is playing a mediating role... we hope they will apply pressure to reach an agreement.”
A diplomatic source told AFP on Friday that US envoy Tom Barrack was headed to Damascus.
