2Nd Attack Hits Egypt's Sinai; Casualties Reported

Unidentified militants opened fire on an army checkpoint in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula with casualties reported, a Health Ministry official said Friday evening.



The attack was the second to hit a checkpoint run by the Egyptian army in the northeastern peninsula on Friday, coming only hours after a bombing left 26 troops dead and 28 others wounded at a nearby checkpoint.



"The new incident left a number of troops dead or injured; the ministry has yet to receive the death toll, due to the lack of communications in Sinai," Khaled al-Khatib, head of the ministry's emergency department, told Anadolu Agency.



A security source said that militants had fired on the checkpoint in the Abu Tawila district in the northern town of Sheikh Zuweid only hours after another checkpoint was attacked in Sheikh Zuweid's Karam al-Quadis district.



"The attackers hit the checkpoint with heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades before fleeing the scene," the source added.



Egyptian state television confirmed the attack, but has yet to state the number of casualties.



Earlier Friday, al-Khatib had told AA that the death toll from the car bomb that went off at the army checkpoint near Sheikh Zuweid had risen to 26.



At least 28 other soldiers were wounded in the attack, he added.



Informed sources said the army had sealed off the peninsula, shutting all roads leading to the northeastern region and sealing the Rafah border crossing linking Egypt to the Gaza Strip.



Communication services were also cut peninsula-wide, as the army launched search operations to track down the perpetrators, the sources added.



Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef told AA that President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi had called a meeting of Egypt's National Defense Council to "follow up on the security situation in North Sinai" in the wake of the bombing.



No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but several media reports blamed the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis militant group, which in recent months has claimed several attacks in Sinai.



For the past year, the Egyptian army has waged a major offensive against militant groups said to be based in the Sinai Peninsula, which shares borders with both Israel and the blockaded Gaza Strip.



The restive peninsula has seen a spate of attacks by unidentified militants on security personnel since last year's ouster of Mohamed Morsi – Egypt's' first freely elected president – by the army.



By Hagar al-Dosoki



englishnews@aa.com.tr



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