CAIRO: Seven Egyptian police officers and four militants were killed in a clash in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, the interior ministry said on Wednesday.
The clash took place late on Tuesday when militants attacked forces stationed southwest of the city of Arish, the ministry said in a statement.
Daesh claimed the attack, saying it had carried out simultaneous raids on military positions in Arish, according to a statement carried on the group’s Amaq news agency.
Security sources said the militants had used more than 10 four-wheel vehicles in coordinated attacks at four sites.
Egyptian security forces have been battling Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula for years and launched a counter-insurgency campaign in the area in February 2018.
Earlier this month militants attacked a checkpoint in North Sinai, an assault that left eight security personnel dead according to the interior ministry.
10 dead in militant attack on security forces in Egypt’s Sinai
10 dead in militant attack on security forces in Egypt’s Sinai
- Daesh claims responsibility for simultaneous raids on military positions in Arish
- Egyptian security forces have been battling Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula for years
Trump offers to mediate Egypt-Ethiopia dispute on Nile River waters
- Egypt says the dam violates international treaties and could cause both droughts and flooding, a claim Ethiopia rejects
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump offered on Friday to mediate a dispute over Nile River waters between Egypt and Ethiopia. “I am ready to restart US mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to responsibly resolve the question of ‘The Nile Water Sharing’ once and for all,” he wrote to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in a letter that also was posted on Trump’s Truth Social account.
Addis Ababa’s September 9 inauguration of its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been a source of anger in Cairo, which is downstream on the Nile.
Ethiopia, the continent’s second-most populous nation with more than 120 million people, sees the $5 billion dam on a tributary of the Nile as central to its economic ambitions.
Egypt says the dam violates international treaties and could cause both droughts and flooding, a claim Ethiopia rejects.
Trump has praised El-Sisi in the past, including during an October trip to Egypt to sign a deal related to the Gaza conflict. In public comments, Trump has echoed Cairo’s concerns about the water issue.
