Egyptian Army Terminates 7 Terrorists in North Sinai

Spokesperson of the Egyptian Armed Forces Tamer al-Refai announced that a fire exchange with seven terrorists in North Sinai, who had attacked a force concentration, resulted in their death, and injured 15 military personnel.

Terror group ISIS released a statement later claiming responsibility for the attack.

These developments come after Egyptian security authorities had foiled a terrorist attempt to target a security checkpoint nearby a mosque before Friday prayers.

The Interior Ministry said that "one of the elements of the Muslim Brotherhood (viewed as a terrorist by authorities) tried to target a security base west of Cairo with an improvised explosive device. Nevertheless, security forces arrived at the scene and defused the bomb.

For its part, Saudi Arabia has condemned the terror attack. A Saudi Foreign Ministry official source released a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), that the Kingdom condemned the terrorist.

The source reasserted that the Kingdom stands by fellow Arab states, especially Egypt, in the war against terrorism and offered condolences to the families of the victims and to the government.

In February 2018, the Egyptian army and police forces launched an unprecedented operation in a number of provinces to hunt down terror remnants and pockets in North Sinai, where they are amassed. The Operation has been dubbed “The Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018”.

Insofar, the operation has succeeded in eliminating hundreds of terrorists confiscating the firearms and explosive devices they possessed and destroying the vehicles they used.

In January, the Egyptian Air Forces eliminated a number of terrorist elements, including two prominent leaders in North Sinai. Also, military and police forces eliminated a number of 59 terrorists, including 15 who were labeled as “highly dangerous”.

On the other hand, Egyptian judicial authorities deferred Saturday the trial of 227 accused of "terror" crimes in the "ISIS-Sinai" and "returnees from Libya" cases. Cairo’s Criminal Court decided to postpone to February 16 the trial of 213 suspects in the ISIS Sinai case.

They are accused of belonging to the terrorist ISIS Sinai group and committing more than 54 terror crimes, including assassinations of police officers, the attempt to kill former Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim and bombing security facilities in a number of governorates, Cairo, Dakahlia and South Sinai.