Egypt's army kills 9 Sinai militants, defuses bomb on railroad

The Egyptian army, in a major operation against Islamic militants in North Sinai on Saturday, killed at least nine of them, and it also foiled a bomb attack on the railroad between two Canal governorates.

“Nine people were killed, nine other militants were arrested, and three weapon warehouses were destroyed,” the army said in a statement posed on its official Facebook page.

The second field military in coordination with the police launched a security operation at 4:00 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) on a group of criminal hideouts in seven areas, the statement read.

Meanwhile, a security source said the armed forces found missiles and explosives warehouses in Kouriah village, including four bags of weapons, 20 RPGs (Rocket-propelled grenade), and a missile base; while laptops, cellphones, and charts and maps in connection with terrorists’ operations in Sinai were also seized.

The source told Xinhua that “It is the biggest military campaign in Sinai since the 1973 war,” and around 2,500 soldiers and army officers, policemen and central security troops took part in the operation.

Security conditions in Sinai deteriorated after the ouster of Egypt’s Islamist-oriented President Mohamed Morsi in July. The army then intensified its operations to eradicate the focal points of terrorists and hardline Jihadist movements which took from the peninsula a heaven for militants who had launched almost daily attacks against the security forces in recent weeks.

Earlier on Saturday, the Egyptian army defused a bomb planted on the railroad linking the Canal governorates of Ismailia and Suez. Initial investigations showed the target was a train coming from Suez that carried at least 300 passengers.

Later in the day, some unidentified men threw a bomb at Bolaq Al-Daqrour police station in Giza, near Cairo, causing a blast, but no one was hurt. The attack came two days after Egypt’s Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim survived an assassination attempt when a bomb exploded near his convoy in Cairo. One person was killed and 24 were injured in the bombing.

Elsewhere, in Qalyubiya governorate, north of Cairo, security men arrested on Saturday Nour el-Din Salem, the major suspect in “ Nasr City” terrorist cell affiliated to al-Qaida in Egypt.

Salem was ordered 15 days in custody pending investigations over charges of establishing and managing an illegal organization, hindering state institutions’ work, and harming public interests.