Twenty “takfiris”, those who accuse other Muslims of apostasy, were killed in a security operation in North Sinai on Friday, and several militants’ bases were torched and destroyed, state media reported.

Security forces targeted areas south of Sheik Zuweid, near the Gaza border, killing 20 militants and injuring scores more, according to state news agency MENA.

According to security sources security forces attacked militant’s hideouts they use as bases to launch operations against the army and police, MENA reported.

Meanwhile, the defence ministry published Friday a video report showing President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s visit to an army’s air base, where he witnessed airstrikes launched against militants hideouts in North Sinai.

On 29 January, attacks targetting military and interior ministry facilities in Al-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah left at least 30 security personnel and civilians dead.

The attacks were claimed by the militant group ‘State of Sinai’, formerly known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, which alleged hundreds were killed in the attacks.

Al-Sisi issued a decree last Saturday to form a new joint military command to fight terrorism east of the Suez Canal.

The joint command is expected to place “all forces on the eastern side of the Canal under one authority, which gives more control on the fighting units and more speed in the collecting information process,” said General Alaa Ezzeddin, former head of the army’s strategic studies unit.