Eight security personnel and five terrorist elements were reportedly killed in the terrorist attack on security checkpoints in North Sinai’s Al-Arish on the first day of Eid Al-Fitr celebration on Wednesday, the Ministry of Interior announced.
Egypt has been battling several armed groups, concentrated mainly in the Sinai Peninsula, since the ouster of Islamist former President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. Since then, shootings that targeted security personnel and state officials have become a frequent occurrence in Egypt.
In May, Libya has extradited top convicted militant Hisham Al-Ashmawi to Egypt, in what the President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi called “A salute and appreciation to Egypt’s brave men who have always acted as hawks against all those who thought that they can terrorise the Egyptians.”
Al-Ashmawi is considered extremely dangerous, as he is a former special forces officer, and was one of Egypt’s most wanted jihadists, as he formed the Al-Murabiteen group, which was reportedly a cell formed within the currently operating Sinai Province militant group.