CAIRO: Egypt’s interior ministry said Tuesday 16 suspected militants have been killed in North Sinai, where security forces have for years been battling a local affiliate of the Daesh group.
The militants were killed during police raids on their hideouts in the provincial capital El-Arish, the ministry said in a statement.
They were found with weapons and explosives in their possession, it added without detailing when the raids took place.
Based on intelligence from the national security department, the ministry alleged the militants had been planning attacks on “important and vital facilities” as well as prominent figures in the city.
Egypt has for years been fighting an insurgency in North Sinai, which escalated following the 2013 removal from power of Islamist president Mohammed Mursi.
Since then, hundreds of police officers and soldiers have been killed in militant attacks.
In February 2018, the army launched a nationwide operation against the militants, focusing mainly on the turbulent North Sinai region.
Some 650 militants and around 45 soldiers have been killed since the start of the offensive, according to separate statements by the armed forces.
Egypt says 16 suspected militants killed in Sinai
Egypt says 16 suspected militants killed in Sinai
Macron, Iraqi Kurdish leader urge ‘de-escalation’ in Syria
- The Islamist-led authorities in Damascus are seeking to extend their control over all of Syria, after toppling former president Bashar Assad a little over a year ago
PARIS, France: France’s President Emmanuel Macron and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, in telephone talks on Saturday urged a cessation of fighting in Syria, the French presidency said.
They “called on all parties for an immediate de-escalation and a permanent ceasefire,” it said, after fighting in recent days between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and government troops in the country’s north.
The SDF control swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, much of which they captured during the civil war and the battle against the Daesh group.
The Islamist-led authorities in Damascus are seeking to extend their control over all of Syria, after toppling former president Bashar Assad a little over a year ago.
Both sides signed a deal in March last year to merge the semi-autonomous Syrian Kurdish administration and its forces into the new government, but implementation has largely stalled.
Macron and Barzani said they backed “the immediate resumption of talks on integrating the SDF into the Syrian state,” the French presidency added.
