CAIRO: Daesh militants ambushed a checkpoint in the restive northern part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, killing at least five troops from the security forces, officials said.
At least six other troops were wounded in the attack in the town of Sheikh Zuweid and taken to a military hospital in the Mediterranean city of El-Arish, they said.
Security personnel killed three militants in the firefight, and the area was reinforced, the officials added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Egypt has been battling militants in the northern part of Sinai Peninsula for years. Violence and instability there intensified after the 2013 military ouster of Muhammad Mursi, an elected but divisive Islamist president, amid nationwide protests against his brief rule.
The militants carried out numerous attacks, mainly targeting security forces, minority Christians and those who they accuse of collaborating with the military and police.
The pace of Daesh attacks in Sinai’s main theater and elsewhere has slowed to a trickle since February 2018, when the military launched a massive operation in Sinai as well as parts of the Nile Delta and deserts along the country’s western border with Libya.
The fight against militants in Sinai has largely taken place hidden from the public eye, with journalists, non-residents and outside observers barred from the area. The conflict has also been kept at a distance from tourist resorts at the southern end of the peninsula.
Egypt officials say Daesh militants attack kills 5 troops in Sinai
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Egypt officials say Daesh militants attack kills 5 troops in Sinai
- At least six other troops were wounded in the attack in the town of Sheikh Zuweid and taken to a military hospital
- Security personnel killed three militants in the firefight, and the area was reinforced, the officials added
Strikes blamed on US kills five Iran-backed fighters in Iraq
- Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said early Tuesday that they had targeted a US base in the region
BAGHDAD: Five Iran-backed fighters in Iraq were killed on Tuesday in strikes their groups blamed on the United States.
The Kataeb Imam Ali group said four fighters were killed in an “American aggression” at dawn against one of their positions in the Debs district of Kirkuk province in northern Iraq.
Late Tuesday, another strike killed a fighter from the Kataeb Hezbollah group in Al-Qaem area near the Iraqi-Syrian border, a source from the group told AFP.
The bombings targeted positions occupied by the Hashed Al-Shaabi, an alliance of factions integrated into Iraq’s regular army.
It also encompasses Iran-backed fighters, including the Kataeb Imam Ali and Kataeb Hezbollah groups.
Since the start of the Middle East war, bases belonging to Hashed Al-Shaabi, or the Popular Mobilization Forces, have been hit several times.
Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, had said it did not want to be dragged into the war, but it has not been spared.
Iran-backed groups have claimed attacks on US bases in Iraq and in the region, without specifying their targets.
At least five drones targeted on Tuesday a military base at the Baghdad International Airport, which houses a US diplomatic facility, a security source said.
One drone crashed near Iraq’s anti-terrorism forces and another ignited a fire at a depot, with no casualties reported, according to the source.
The autonomous Kurdistan region in the north, hosts US troops and has been a main target of drone attacks, but these have largely been intercepted.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said early Tuesday that they had targeted a US base in the region.
At night, the US-led coalition air defenses downed a drone that crashed between the US consulate in Kurdistan capital Irbil and the airport, which houses US and foreign troops, a Kurdish security source said.
On Monday, a drone was downed near the UAE consulate in the city.
