9 Sinai 'Terrorists' Killed İn 2 Days: Egypt Army

The Egyptian army said Thursday that it had killed nine "terrorists" and arrested 12 others within the past two days in the northeastern Sinai Peninsula.



"The armed forces have staged several raids in the past two days during which nine terrorists were killed in exchanges of fire with army forces," Egyptian military spokesman Mohamed Samir said on Facebook.



The army, he added, had also arrested 12 militants and destroyed 13 militant sites in northern Sinai.



Earlier this week, the army said it had killed 42 militants and arrested 27 others in the restive peninsula.



For more than a year, Egypt has cracked down on militant groups in Sinai – which shares borders with both Israel and the blockaded Gaza Strip – amid an upswing of militant attacks that have targeted army and police personnel.



In a particularly deadly attack on October 24, unidentified militants killed 31 Egyptian troops and injured an equal number.



In the immediate wake of that attack, the Egyptian government established a kilometer-wide "buffer zone" between the peninsula and the Gaza Strip.



The move was taken with the stated aim of "protecting Egypt's national security" after the army said it had discovered a number of cross-border tunnels in the area.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Kahire