Egyptian soldier killed in Rafah attack

Source : Maan News Agency

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- An Egyptian soldier was killed on Monday during a militant attack on an army camp in Sinai.

Gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades at Egyptian forces near Rafah, killing a soldier, Ma'an's correspondent said.

Militants attacked eight other army checkpoints in the el-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, injuring eight soldiers.

On Sunday, gunmen fired US-made ballistic shells at a security building in north Sinai, Egypt's Ministry of Interior said.

"Terrorists targeted the security directorate of north of Sinai from a lon distance," the ministry said. Security sources detained three suspects i Sinai, after clashing with two of them.

A police station in el-Arish was also targeted late Sunday by a bomb, with n injuries reported.

On Wednesday, militants shot dead an Egyptian soldier and wounde another south of el-Arish in Egypt's Sinai. Militants have conducted dai attacks on security forces in Sinai since the military overthrew Islamis President Mohamed Mursi on July 3.

Egypt militants bomb gas pipeline to Jordan

Source : Al Akhbar English

Attackers in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula bombed a gas pipeline to Jordan on Sunday, witnesses said, amid a surge in attacks on police and soldiers since Islamist president Mohammed Mursi's ouster.

Witnesses told AFP the blast took place near the North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish, scene of major disturbances since Mursi's overthrow by the military on Wednesday.

On Friday, armed Mursi supporters stormed the provincial headquarters, raising the black banner used by al-Qaeda-affiliated militants, an AFP correspondent reported.

A Jordanian government official confirmed that gas supplies to the energy-poor kingdom were cut.

"The gas supplies to Jordan stopped due to the attack," the official told state-run Petra news agency.

"The Egyptian authorities have informed us that they are currently evaluating the situation and the damage," he added without elaborating. Egyptian gas covers 80 percent of electricity generation in Jordan, which imports 95 percent of its energy needs.

But Sunday's bombing was the first reported in almost a year.

Five security officers were killed at their checkpoints in Sinai on Friday and four other checkpoints were attacked on Saturday.

A priest was killed at one checkpoint by a group of militants, according to security sources.

(AFP, Reuters)

Security: Gunmen kill Egypt policeman in Sinai ambush

Source : Maan News Agency

CAIRO (AFP) -- Gunmen shot and killed an Egyptian police officer during an ambush Saturday in the Sinai peninsula, a security source said, the second attack on police in the restive region this month.

"Colonel Mohammed Hani, a high-ranking officer, was killed by six bullets to the head when unknown gunmen opened fire on him with machine guns," the source said.

The gunmen were in a car that was used to ambush the officer in a street of the Sinai town of El-Arish, he said.

Another security source blamed the attack on Islamist militants and said it was the second one in month targeting the police in the Sinai.

Three weeks ago, armed men shot dead police officer Mohammed Abu Shaqra who served in th anti-terrorism squad at El-Arish.

A hive of militant activity, Egypt's Sinai peninsula is a major route for drugs smuggling and huma trafficking.

Ever since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in 2011, throwing his feared security services int disarray, the region has grown even more restless and awash with weapons.

Attacks on police and soldiers, and abductions of tourists, in the sparsely populated peninsula hav surged since Mubarak's overthrow as have cross-border attacks on Israel.

In August 2012, suspected Islamist gunmen killed 16 Egyptian soldiers near Israel's border an commandeered an armoured vehicle into Israel, where they were stopped by a helicopter strike.

Bedouin activists who populate the Sinai have long complained of the government's neglect of th region, saying they have been treated as second-class citizens ever since Israel handed back th peninsula it had seized in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Security sources: Egypt's Sinai on high alert

Source : Maan News Agency

CAIRO (Ma'an) -- Egypt has declared a state of alert in the Sinai after extremist Islamist fighters set up a military base in the peninsula, Egyptian security officials said Monday.

Egyptian forces and police have imposed curfews on Sinai cities el-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah. Military helicopters were seen hovering over the cities, a Ma'an reporter said.

Militants from Egypt, Palestine and Mali affiliated to Jihadist groups and al-Qaeda have deployed heavily in bunkers in a desert area in central Sinai, Egyptian security officials told Ma'an.

Around 30 "dangerous" militants affiliated to Jihadist and Takfiri groups entered Sinai through tunnels from the Gaza Strip to join the camp, the officials said.

The militants have large amounts of ammunition and weapons, suggesting they plan to join demonstrations against the Muslim Brotherhood planned for June 30, the security sources added.

Sinai clan chiefs have formed a popular committee in north Sinai to protect protect strategic facilities and public properties during the planned protests.

Abdul-Hamid Salami, chief of the al-Fawakhiriya clan in el-Arish, said Friday that clan dignitaries would hold an emergency meeting on Monday with army and police commanders to discuss ways to protect the peninsula against security chaos.

"We have learned a good lesson from the previous experience during the Jan. 25 revolution," Salami told Ma'an.

"We will sacrifice our souls to protect all security facilities in Sinai, and will not allow Palestinians to infiltrate through smuggling tunnels seeking to support a certain party at the expense of the Egyptian people.

"We hereby warn in advance that the people of Sinai will defy any external elements and prevent them by force from destroying Sinai or reaching Cairo."