Militant attacks in Egypt leaves over 70 dead

Security personnel inspect damage of a car believed to be the bombed car, after a bomb attack that targeted Egypt’s General Prosecutor Hisham Barakat in the Heliopolis district of Cairo, Egypt, Monday, June 29, 2015. An Egyptian militant group, known as Popular Resistance in Giza, has claimed responsibility for the morning bomb attack in Cairo that targeted Barakat, wounding him and several others. (AP Photo)

Islamic State group militants launched an unprecedented wave of attacks on Wednesday 1^st July, on Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula killing at least 70 people, which included civilians and officers and soldiers.

After a day of fighting, which involved F-16 jets and Apache helicopters, the army said it would not stop its operations until it had cleared the area of all “terrorist concentrations”.

Security sources and witnesses later said aerial bombardments on militant targets had resumed.

IS’s Egyptian affiliate, Sinai Province, claimed responsibility, saying it attacked more than 15 security sites and carried out three suicide bombings.

The violence came two days after state prosecutor Hisham Barakat was assassinated in a Cairo car bombing. He was the most senior government official killed in the insurgency.

In the capital on Wednesday, police killed senior Muslim Brotherhood member Nasser alHoufi and eight others during a raid on an apartment, security officials and a member of the movement said.

An army statement said the fighting had been concentrated in the towns of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah and that the militants used car bombs and various weapons.

Troops regularly come under attack in the Sinai, where jihadists have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since Morsi’s overthrow.

The Islamic State group said its jihadists surrounded the police station in Sheikh Zuweid after launching attacks on 15 checkpoints and security installations using suicide car bombers and rockets.

The militants were also said to have planted bombs along a road between Sheikh Zuweid and al-Zuhour army camp and seized two armored vehicles, weapons and ammunition, the sources said.

IS had urged its followers to escalate attacks during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which started in mid-June, though it did not specify Egypt as a target.

Sisi pledged to toughen laws and suggested fast track executions following the state prosecutor’s assassination, and a cabinet meeting on Wednesday was expected to pass the amendments. Sisi, the former army chief who toppled Morsi, won elections last year pledging to wipe out militants.