At least 13 Egyptian policemen were killed in the Sinai peninsula when Islamic militants fired a mortar round at a security checkpoint in the city of Arish, security and medical sources said on Saturday, The Guardian reported.
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“A mortar round was sacked at the Safa checkpoint… which resulted in the martyrdom of 13 policemen”, the ministry statement added.
Egypt’s North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled the ex-president Hosni Mubarak.
The local IS affiliate has been targeting Egyptian security forces in Sinai and claimed the downing of a Russian airliner last October that killed 224 people.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former military chief who led Mursi’s ouster, describes Islamist militancy as an existential threat to Egypt, an ally of the United States.
On Twitter, ISIS claimed that the attack was “part of a series of operations in response to the humiliation and searching of Muslim women at checkpoints”.
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The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belong to terrorists, including tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.
