CAIRO: Egyptian police have killed six militants in a shootout in the restive northern Sinai region, the interior ministry said Monday.
The firefight broke out as police forces raided a hideout of “terrorist elements” intent on carrying out “hostile operations,” it said.
Egypt’s security forces are battling a long-running insurgency in the peninsula, spearheaded by a local affiliate of the Daesh group.
Weapons and explosives were found in the militants’ possession, the ministry added, in a statement released along with gruesome photos of the slain militants.
The date of the raid was not specified.
The Islamist insurgency in North Sinai escalated following the military’s 2013 ouster of Islamist President Muhammad Mursi.
Scores of policemen and soldiers have since been killed in militant attacks.
Last month, Daesh said it had blown up a gas pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula, saying it was connected to Israel.
Security sources however said the targeted pipeline was a domestic one.
Cairo launched a nationwide operation against militants in February 2018, mainly focusing on North Sinai province.
Since then, over 845 suspected militants have been killed in the region along with more than 60 security personnel, according to army figures.
Egypt police say killed 6 militants in northern Sinai
https://arab.news/cppxs
Egypt police say killed 6 militants in northern Sinai
- The firefight broke out as police forces raided a hideout of “terrorist elements”
- Egypt’s security forces are battling a long-running insurgency in the peninsula
France deploys jets over UAE to protect its military bases
PARIS: France has deployed Rafale fighter jets over the United Arab Emirates to protect its naval and air bases against Iranian attacks, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday.
France has hundreds of navy, air force and army personnel based in the UAE. Its Rafale aircraft are stationed at Al-Dhafra base near Abu Dhabi.
“These Rafales and their pilots are mobilized to ensure the security of our facilities,” Barrot told broadcaster BFMTV in response to a question on French action in the UAE over the weekend to neutralize Iranian drones.
“They have carried out operations to secure the airspace above our bases.”
On Sunday, “a hangar at a French base in the United Arab Emirates was hit by a drone,” Barrot said.
“Exchanges are multiplying to determine both how the country can defend itself against future attacks and how France can protect its interests there,” he added.
France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier was however in the North Atlantic, as part of a previously planned multinational exercise, Barrot said, after he was asked if it had been sent to the Mediterranean.
To the best of his knowledge, it had not changed course, he said.
The United States and Israel launched attacks against Iran on Saturday, killing Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has responded by targeting US allies in the Gulf region.
Debris from a drone interception caused a fire that was contained at an oil industry zone in the Fujairah emirate on Tuesday, authorities said.
In Abu Dhabi, a drone struck a fuel tank terminal on Monday, causing a fire though operations were not impacted.
Tech giant Amazon said late on Monday that two of its data centers in the UAE were “directly struck” by drones, disrupting cloud services in parts of the Middle East.
