CAIRO (AP) – Fighting on Wednesday in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula left an officer and four troops dead, the military said, just days after an attack there killed 11 forces.
In a statement, the military’s spokesman said the forces had been killed during a clash with militants, and that it came after airstrikes in recent days. The military claimed that at least seven extremists had been killed in the same bout of fighting.
Two security officials said the clashes took place after militants attacked a checkpoint belonging to the country’s border guards near the city of Rafah, on the country’s Mediterranean coast that borders the Gaza Strip.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to speak to media.
Egypt is battling an insurgency in Sinai that intensified after the military overthrew an elected but divisive extremist president in 2013. The extremists have carried out scores of attacks, mainly targetting security forces, but the pace has slowed in recent years.
On April 30, suspected militants blew up a natural gas pipeline in Northern Sinai’s town of Bir al-Abd, causing a fire but no casualties.
