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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Informations | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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10Feb15
Egyptian army kills 22 militants in Sinai
At least 22 militants have been killed as the Egyptian army launched several raids on their hideouts in northern Sinai province, a security official said on Tuesday.
The army killed 15 Jihadists in an air raid late on Monday in three villages of Sheikh Zuweid city, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, adding that three militants were killed and eight others arrested in clashes with the armed forces on Tuesday.
Also, the armed forces targeted with a motor shell a car carrying militants, killing four of them.
The militants, disguised in military uniform, were forcing the passers-by to stop to inspect them, the official said.
Killing civilians by extremists has become common in the Sinai Peninsula over accusations of spying for either the Egyptian or the Israeli army, the official added.
Egypt's armed forces have been battling an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula since the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July, 2013.
So far, hundreds of police officers and soldiers have been killed in armed attacks in response to a government crackdown on Morsi's supporters that left hundreds dead. Thousands of Morsi supporters have been jailed.
Sinai-based al-Qaida-inspired Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM) group, which recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, claimed responsibility for most of the attacks against security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.
The ABM group, which was founded in 2011, was designated as a terror organization by Egypt and the United States.
Security forces have been intensifying anti-terror military operations in Sinai in the wake of recent attacks on security forces that killed at least 33 people late January.
On Monday, the ABM released a video purporting to show the beheading of 10 Bedouin men, over allegations of providing the Egyptian army with information about their bases.
The video, posted on the group's Twitter account, also showed the assassination of two Egyptian soldiers by masked militants in Arish.
After two years of attacks against security forces in Sinai, the extremists turned to kidnap and behead civilians.
In early January, seven kidnapped civilians were found dead, three of them beheaded, on Rafah-Arish international road.
In the latest video, one of the victims confessed to spying for the Israeli army.
According to Mohamed Nour al-Din, former interior minister aide, the video was meant to "terrorize residents of Sinai, to push them away from cooperating with security forces" after the army managed recently to erode the ABM influence in the Peninsula.
[Source: Xinhua, North Sinai, 10Feb15]
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