Six insurgents killed in Sinai gunbattle

Cairo: Six insurgents were killed Sunday in a gunbattle with Egyptian security forces in Sinai, where Egypt has launched an offensive against suspected Islamist militants, a state television report said.

The gunbattle erupted in the village of Al Jura in central Sinai, where the forces were mounting a “combing operation against terrorists”, added the television.

Military and security forces Sunday also launched a massive mopping up operation in the border Rafah town near Gaza where 16 Egyptian army soldiers were killed by gunmen on August 5, according to the report.

More reinforcements, including tanks and missiles, have been sent to Sinai since the crackdown started on Tuesday, said local media.

The campaign, code-named “Eagle”, is the army’s biggest since 1973 when Egypt went to war against Israel.

Meanwhile, unknown gunmen opened fire on a camp of UN peacekeepers in the area of Um Shayhan in central Sinai, security sources said.

They said there were no casualties in the attack, which emphasises the hardships facing the government of President Mohammad Mursi in quelling militancy in the vast Sinai Peninsula.

The official Middle East News Agency said the attack had targeted a military outpost in the area.

Egyptian television reported that three policemen were killed when their vehicle overturned early Sunday in central Sinai where they were hunting down suspected insurgents.

Sinai has been the scene of lawless acts, blamed on Islamist radicals, in the months that followed the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak more than a year ago.

Mursi, facing his first crucial crisis since taking office on June 30, has vowed a harsh response to the August 5 attack, the deadliest on the Egyptian army in many years.