CAIRO: Egypt says security forces have killed 4 militants in the restive northern part of Sinai Peninsula.
The Interior Ministry says the four were killed in a shootout with police south of the Mediterranean city of el-Arish on Saturday. It says the police seized automatic rifles, bombs and explosive belts.
The ministry says the four were implicated in an attack earlier this week on a police checkpoint in northern Sinai that authorities say left eight policemen dead. On Thursday, authorities said security forces killed 14 suspected militants linked to the attack, which was claimed by Daesh.
The long-running insurgency in northern Sinai escalated after the military overthrow of an elected but divisive president in 2013, and is now led by a Daesh affiliate.
Egypt says its forces kill 4 militants in Sinai
Egypt says its forces kill 4 militants in Sinai
- The ministry says the four were implicated in an attack earlier this week on a police checkpoint in northern Sinai that authorities say left eight policemen dead
- On Thursday, authorities said security forces killed 14 suspected militants linked to the attack, which was claimed by Daesh
Algeria inaugurates strategic railway to giant Sahara mine
- The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030
- The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium
ALGEIRS: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday inaugurated a nearly 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) desert railway to transport iron ore from a giant mine, a project he called one of the biggest in the country’s history.
The line will bring iron ore from the Gara Djebilet deposit in the south to the city of Bechar located 950 kilometers north, to be taken to a steel production plant near Oran further north.
The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium.
During the inauguration, Tebboune described it as “one of the largest strategic projects in the history of independent Algeria.”
This project aims to increase Algeria’s iron ore extraction capacity, as the country aspires to become one of Africa’s leading steel producers.
The iron ore deposit is also seen as a key driver of Algeria’s economic diversification as it seeks to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, according to experts.
President Tebboune attended an inauguration ceremony in Bechar, welcoming the first passenger train from Tindouf in southern Algeria and sending toward the north a first charge of iron ore, according to footage broadcast on national television.
The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030, according to estimates by the state-owned Feraal Group, which manages the site.
It is then expected to reach 50 million tons per year in the long term, it said.
The start of operations at the mine will allow Algeria to drastically reduce its iron ore imports and save $1.2 billion per year, according to Algerian media.
