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ISIL-Linked Attacks Kill More Than 70 in Egypt’s Sinai

Militants of Takfiri group, ISIL (so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant) launched an unprecedented wave of attacks Wednesday on Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula that killed at least 70 people.

F-16 warplanes bombarded the militants as they fought police and soldiers on the streets of the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid after striking military checkpoints in a surprise attack after dawn.

Sinai attacks on Wednesday July 1

The violence came two days after state prosecutor Hisham Barakat was assassinated in a Cairo car bombing. He was the most senior government official killed in the Takfiri insurgency.

In the capital on Wednesday, police killed senior Muslim Brotherhood member Nasser al-Houfi and eight others during a raid on an apartment, security officials and a member of the Islamist movement said.

The Sinai attacks, in which car bombs were used, were the most brazen in their scope since extremists launched an insurgency in 2013 following the army's overthrow of Brotherhood’s president Mohammad Mursi.

The victims included several civilians, according to security and medical officials, who said 38 militants were also killed.

"It's war. The battle is ongoing," a senior military official told AFP.

"It's unprecedented, in the number of terrorists involved and the type of weapons they are using."

Militants took over rooftops and fired rockt-propelled grenades at a police station in Sheikh Zuweid after mining its exits to block reinforcements, a police colonel said.

F-16 jets struck the militants in several locations in the town, officials and a witness said.
"There are gunmen on the streets. They have planted mines everywhere," said the witness in Sheikh Zuweid.

Explosions were heard and plumes of smoke were seen over Sheikh Zuweid from the neighboring Palestinian Gaza Strip, witnesses there said.

ISIL said its militants surrounded the police station after launching attacks on 15 checkpoints and security installations using suicide car bombers and rockets.

Security and medical officials said ambulances could not get to the scene of the attacks because of heavy fighting in which the military brought in Apache helicopters.

"Ambulances are waiting in front of the hospital. They can't leave. People are bringing in the casualties," a health official told AFP.

Troops regularly come under attack in the Sinai, where Takfiris have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since Mursi's overthrow.

In a statement released online, ISIL said the assault had involved three suicide bombers.
"In a blessed raid enabled by God, the lions of the caliphate have simultaneously attacked more than 15 checkpoints belonging to the apostate army," the group said.

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