Daesh Egypt branch claims deadly Sinai attacks

Cairo: The Egyptian affiliate of Daesh claimed responsibility Friday for deadly attacks on army checkpoints in the Sinai Peninsula that killed 15 soldiers and two civilians.

Militants launched simultaneous attacks Thursday on five checkpoints in the restive Sinai with assault rifles and grenade launchers, the deadliest in months against Egyptian security forces.

Medics said 15 soldiers and two civilians were killed.

“The lions of the Sinai Province early on Thursday launched wide scale simultaneous attacks against security checkpoints on the road between Rafah and Arish,” in North Sinai, the group said in a tweet.

Ansar Bait Al Maqdis - Partisans of Jerusalem in English - changed its name last year to Sinai Province after pledging allegiance to Daesh, which controls chunks of territory in Iraq and Syria.

The group, which has previously claimed several sophisticated attacks in Sinai and the Nile valley, now wants to establish in Egypt a province of the self-declared “Islamic State”.

In the tweet, the group said all those who took part in the attacks had returned safely to their base, countering army reports that 15 militants were killed in an exchange of fire.