The largest attack against Egyptian security forces since president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi won a second term in office killed 8 Egyptian soldiers and 14 militants in fighting in central Sinai on Saturday when gunmen carrying explosive belts and grenades targeted a military checkpoint.
President Sisi promised to work for stability and security in Egypt during the election campaign a few weeks ago. The attack came just hours after the country extended a state of emergency imposed a year ago.
Egyptian army announced, the militants attacked the checkpoint at around dawn, four of them detonated their explosive belts, killing 8 of the soldiers and wounding 15 others.
Last November president Sisi ordered the military to defeat militants in north Sinai within three months, after an attack on a mosque that killed more than 300 people, the deadliest such incident in the Arab world’s most populous country.
