Islamic State-linked militants killed at least 29 people in simultaneous attack around Egypt’s North Sinai region on Thursday night in one of the deadliest attacks on the country’s military for decades.
Ten mortars and a car bomb hit a heavily fortified security directorate in the city of El Arish, wounding more than 100, as simultaneous attacks took place on military targets elsewhere in the city and in the nearby town of Sheikh Zuwayid.
The explosions lit up the sky and gunfire crackles for hours into the night, according to eyewitnesses in North Sinai, a strategically sensitive desert governorate which runs along Egypt’s border with Gaza.
In Suez, some 455 kilometres south-west of al-Arish, a homemade bomb also exploded outside a military installation, killing a police officer.
Four of Thursday night's attacks were claimed by Wilayat Sinai an Egyptian jihadist group formerly known as Ansar Bayt el Maqdis. The militants are understood to have declared loyalty to Isil leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi as early as last summer.
At least 46 people were reported to have been injured in the attacks.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/11378633/Dozens-dead-in-Egypts-Sinai-as-Islamists-launch-simultaneous-attacks.html
