Al Arish: Around a dozen Islamist militants robbed a local bank and traded fire with security forces guarding an unused church in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Monday, killing six people, including three civilians, officials said.
The attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles at guards outside the Church of Saint George in the center of Al Arish, Egyptian security and military officials said.
Services at the church were suspended months ago, following a wave of attacks on Christians in Sinai.
The militants then robbed a bank before fleeing by pickup and motorcycle to the southern outskirts of the city.
“They looted the entire bank and left explosive devices inside,” a senior security official said.
The clashes killed three civilians and three guards, and wounded another 15 people, the officials said. Panic spread in the city, which has been under a state of emergency and curfew since a series of deadly Daesh attacks in 2014.
The fighting came less than 24 hours after a Daesh affiliate killed nine soldiers in series of attacks targeting checkpoints across the nearby town of Shaikh Zweid.
Daesh claimed responsibility in a statement carried by the extremists’ Aamaq media outlet. The army said 24 attackers were killed.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to brief media.
Egypt has been struggling to combat an insurgency in the northern Sinai that gathered strength after the military overthrew an elected Islamist president in 2013.
The church was attacked twice previously, during the uprising against longtime autocrat Husni Mubarak in 2011, and again in 2013, after the military overthrew President Mohammad Morsi.
The attacks on Monday prompted Egyptian authorities to postpone the opening of the Rafah crossing with Gaza, which had been due to open for four days. No new date has been set.
