Egyptian air strikes kill 23 militants in North Sinai: sources

At Barakat’s funeral, el-Sissi had pledged to bring his killers to justice.

The interior ministry stated that the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood who were killed are fugitives and two among them were sentenced to death not long ago. The militants also planted bombs along a road between Sheikh Zuweid and al-Zuhour army camp to prevent the movement of any army supplies or reinforcements.

A auto bomb on Monday killed a prosecutor general and the high-profile official in Cairo.

Meanwhile, a policeman was killed after unknown gunmen opened fire on him here, a security source said.

The statement, which was aired on state television, said 17 soldiers, including four officers, were killed. Over the past two years, the area has seen a series of complex and successful attacks targeting Egyptian security forces, many of which have been claimed by an Islamic State affiliate.

This week has been especially troubling for Egypt, a strategic US ally which has a peace treaty with Israel and controls the Suez Canal, a vital global shipping lane.

It was the latest incident in a full-blown insurgency that is posing the biggest challenge yet to President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s rule.

The MENA report did not describe the proposed laws. Sinai has been under curfew since last October, when several soldiers died in a militant attack.

He says: “Our hearts are with the Egyptian people, we send our condolences to the Egyptian government and the families of those who were killed in battle with the cruel terror”.

The USA National Security Council said it “will continue to assist Egypt in addressing these threats to its security”.

In a separate development, on Wednesday, security officials reported that nine members of Mr Morsi’s now banned Muslim Brotherhood, including ex- MP Nasr al-Hafi, was killed in his flat in western Cairo following a police raid. The attacks set off the fiercest clashes in the peninsula in decades between the army and the militants, as fighting continued into Wednesday afternoon.

IS said the assault had involved three suicide bombers.

An Associated Press reporter 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 kilometers (25 miles) away.

The coordinated attacks on military checkpoints and security positions culminated in the firing of rocket propelled grenades at a police station in the town of Sheikh Zuweid. Clashes were still ongoing through Wednesday afternoon.

The cabinet, which met in the Police Academy for security reasons on Wednesday, approved a draft anti-terrorism law, which it said would “achieve quick and just deterrence”. As fighting raged, an army Apache gunship destroyed one of the armoured carriers captured by the militants as they were driving it away, the officials added.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

An earlier statement by military spokesman Brig. “We hope that [the media] take this into account in the future”, said Samir. There were photos of the contorted bodies of the “despicable terrorists” lying in the desert, some lined up, almost all wearing military uniforms. Some news outlets place the military death toll at 40.