Egyptian army kills 25 militants in North Sinai: sources

Egypt’s military killed 241 militants in the Sinai from July 1-5, including ISIL militants who launched spectacular attacks last week.

Egyptian air strikes killed 23 militants the next day, security sources said.

The casualties, however, could not be independently verified.

The army said 17 soldiers and 100 rebels had been killed in that attack, but medical and security officials said the death toll was at least 70 people – mostly soldiers – as well as dozens of rebels.

Egypt’s foreign ministry gathered foreign correspondents for a briefing Saturday during which it provided a list of suggested alternative words to use instead of “Islamic State” to describe the notorious jihadist group, according to media reports.

Since the army-led coup on the back of street protests two years ago that saw the ouster of Islamist Mohamed Morsi from the presidency, the government has introduced draconian legislation, arguing that the challenge from Islamic militants warrants the harsh moves.

But now it seems that Israel will have to deal with Hamas and IS together, with a clear division of labor – Hamas ensures calm along Gaza’s border with Israel, but IS in the Sinai, with Hamas’ help, freely operates against Israeli and Egyptian targets.

The terror group, formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, now calls itself Wilayat Sinai (Sinai Province). I assume that the Egyptian army has regained control for the moment.

It comes just days after the Egyptian leader pledged tough measures to combat terrorism after the June assassination of the country’s top public prosecutor in a Cairo vehicle bombing. “They are here to protect Egypt. If any one wanted to hurt Egyptians they must face the army first”, he said.

“We built a similar fence on the Golan Heights against ISIS and other terrorist elements there, and, as you know, we have also started to build a security fence on our eastern border”, Netanyahu said.

Late Wednesday, a resident of Sheikh Zuweid who was in Cairo and had spoken by phone to relatives and friends in the town, said many civilians were trapped by the fighting, with no water or electricity. Ever since the publicly-backed ousting of Mohammad Mursi by the Egyptian military in 2013, the global press and media has gone into overdrive on the alleged human rights abuses against Muslim Brotherhood members by the state authorities. A bomb exploded next to a power station in Sheikh Zuweid, killing two workers and injuring another, security officials said.

Major-General Yoav Mordechai, a senior military policymaker for the occupied territories, said in an interview with al-Jazeera that Hamas, the militant Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, is supporting Isis in the Sinai Province.

The draft law has ruffled feathers among an Egyptian press which often now marches in lockstep with the government, giving favourable coverage to aspects of a sweeping crackdown that has seen tens of thousands of people – including journalists – arrested over a two-year period.