Cairo, Sept 8 (Petra)
The Egyptian military demolished 31 tunnels on the border between Sinai and the Gaza Strip during an operation in which 33 "terrorist elements" were killed and several drone aircraft were seized, the Egyptian army said on Saturday.
Military spokesman Col. Ahmad Mohammad Ali said there were an estimated 225 smuggling tunnels straddling the Egypt-Gaza border, each with 2-3 exits inside Egyptian territory. They have been used as a conduit through which various goods and contraband are brought into the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip. Egyptian authorities often turn a blind eye to the booming cross-border trade.
A tunnel, he explained, starts from a Gaza house and ends up inside Egyptian territory with an opening inside a school or a house bedroom, which made it hard to monitor.
Egyptian troops began the operation to "cleanse Sinai from terrorists and armed gangs" and destroy tunnels after a border guard post in the town of Rafah was attacked by armed men on Aug. 5 that left 16 Egyptian servicemen dead.
© Jordan News Agency - Petra 2012
