Regarding Egyptian statements that the situation in Sinai was “under control”, Mr Shay, a colonel in the reserves, said: “Being under control is a limited thing”. “Destroy the citadels of his oppression and tyranny and reclaim Egypt once more”. The authorities said Mr Barakat was killed by a remote-controlled auto bomb placed along the route that his convoy travelled every day.
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“Victory or martyrdom”, said a front-page headline in Al-Ghomuriya.
Since Mursi’s removal, the Muslim Brotherhood that supported his presidency has been targeted, with hundreds of its supporters killed and thousands, including the ex- president, put on trial.
The interior ministry said the group were holding a meeting to plot attacks. On Monday, a vehicle bomb killed the prosecutor-general in Cairo, the highest-profile official to die since the insurgency began.
The spokesman, Mohamed Samir, was speaking by phone to state television. “The two armies may already be coordinating in preparation for such a possibility”.
The Sinai attacks were the most brazen in their scope since extremists stepped up their violence in 2013 following the army’s overthrow of ex- president Mohammed Morsi.
The change in the nature of Wednesday’s attack was not in the simultaneous attacks on a number of security checkpoints, Gold said, stressing that the group had followed a similar tactic at least twice before, in attacks on security locations in Sinai last January and April. As long as Egypt’s Nile Delta-centric policies of development and infrastructure continue, Cairo will struggle to alleviate any local disenfranchisement that often leads to extremism in the area.
The MENA report did not describe the proposed laws.
Also, on Wednesday, Egyptian security forces killed nine members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including a ex- lawmaker, in a raid on a Cairo residence. Northern Sinai largely remains a no-go zone, where more than a year of escalating militant strikes have prompted an intensified military campaign. It said some of those killed had been convicted in court cases. “Revenge”, said a headline in Al-Akhbar. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
Egypt’s military has said it is “leading a vicious war against terrorism”. But Israel has regularly agreed toEgypt bringing in reinforcements to tackle the Sinai insurgency, and one Israeli official signalled there could be further such deployments following Wednesday’s attacks.
An earlier statement by military spokesman Brig.
“There were no clashes”, he said.
Earlier, he said 22 militants were killed as the military fought back against the attackers.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s military claimed it killed 35 militants in North Sinai on Thursday. The attacks set off the fiercest clashes in the peninsula in decades between the army and the militants, as fighting continued into Wednesday afternoon.
An extremist group that had been active in Sinai before Morsi’s overthrow “Ansar Beit al-Maqdis” claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks.
The insurgency based in the Sinai is seeking to topple the Cairo government and has managed to defy one of the toughest security crackdowns in Egypt’s history.
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The team was fired upon when it entered the home and returned fire, but no security forces were wounded, the officials said. The conflict in the death toll reported by the security officials and that reported by the government could not immediately be reconciled.
