02 July 2015

EL-ARISH, Egypt: Dozens of ISIS-affiliated militants unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks, including suicide car bombings, on Egyptian army checkpoints in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula Wednesday, killing at least 64 soldiers, officials said.

The advanced planning and coordinated execution of the attacks show that the long-running insurgency in the area is growing stronger, posing a serious threat to Egypts security as the military-backed government struggles to restore stability after years of unrest since the 2011 uprising.

The assault came a day after Egypts President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi pledged to step up the battle against militants and two days after the chief prosecutor was assassinated in Cairo. The officials said 90 militants were killed in fierce fighting that started in the early morning and raged until the end of the day the deadliest battle in Sinai since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Later Wednesday, a special forces team killed nine members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including a former member of parliament, in a raid on an apartment in Cairos 6th of October district, security officials said.

The team was fired upon when they entered the home and returned fire, killing the nine men. No security forces were wounded, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to brief the press.

One of the dead was Nasr al-Hafi, a former deputy in the lower house of parliament for the Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice party, while the other was a Brotherhood leader, Abdel-Fattah Mohamed Ibrahim.

Egyptian officials and pro-government media have blamed a series of recent attacks on ousted President Mohammad Morsis Muslim Brotherhood, which is officially branded a terrorist group. The Brotherhood has denied involvement in the attacks, many of which have been claimed by other groups, including the Sinai-based militants behind Wednesdays coordinated assault, who are loyal to ISIS.

The ISIS affiliate Sinai Province claimed Wednesdays attacks, saying its fighters targeted 15 army and police positions and staged three suicide bombings, two that targeted checkpoints and one that hit an officers club. The claims authenticity could not be immediately verified but it was posted on a Facebook page associated with the group.

This specific attack is by far the worst weve ever seen, said Daniel Nisman, CEO for the Levantine Group risk consultancy. Its not a hit-and-run this is what they used in places like Syria and Iraq to actually capture and hold territory.

He said the attack revealed the weaknesses of the militarys scorched earth operations against militants in the northern Sinai, which he says have made it difficult for an army that is very, very overstretched to recruit local support.

The assault focused on the town of Sheikh Zuweid and targeted at least six military checkpoints, the officials said. The militants also took soldiers captive and seized weapons and several armored vehicles, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The officials said scores of militants were besieging Sheikh Zuweids main police station, shelling it with mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades and exchanging fire with dozens of policemen inside.At least 55 soldiers were wounded, the officials said. As fighting raged, an army Apache gunship destroyed one of the armored carriers captured by the militants as they were driving away, the officials said.

An Associated Press reporter meanwhile heard two explosions from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza and saw smoke rising, though it was not immediately clear what caused the blasts or if they were linked to the militant assault some 40 km away.

In a statement broadcast on state television, Egypts military said 17 soldiers had been killed in the fighting, with 13 wounded, while at least 100 terrorist supporters had been killed. The conflicting accounts of the number of troops killed could not immediately be reconciled.

An earlier statement by military spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohammad Samir said some 70 militants had attacked five checkpoints in northern Sinai. Later he said that the countrys armed forces targeted two militant gatherings in northern Sinai, completely destroying them.

Two of the checkpoints attacked Wednesday were completely destroyed, the officials said. Army checkpoints in the area are routinely staffed by 50-60 soldiers. The ISIS statement said the two checkpoints were hit by suicide bombers.

Separately, Egypts Cabinet approved draft anti-terrorism and election laws, the transitional justice minister said.

Sisi had promised a tougher legal system Tuesday, after a car bomb attack that killed the senior public prosecutor, the highest-level state official to be killed in years.

The Cabinet said in a statement that the anti-terrorism legislation would provide quick and just deterrence and contained measures to dry up the avenues of terrorism funding.

The statement said it had approved a package of draft laws that achieve swift justice and retribution for our martyrs, without providing further details.

Copyright The Daily Star 2015.