Cairo: Six Egyptian soldiers were killed in a “terrorist” attack in restive North Sinai, where Islamist militants are active, the army’s spokesman said on Friday.
“Terrorist elements attacked a security post in Al Arish with hand grenades and firearms,” Tamer Al Rifai wrote on his Facebook page.
“The assailants fled and many were killed and wounded,” he said, without giving further details.
An insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula has killed hundreds of troops and policemen since the army ousted Egypt’s elected Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in 2013, with a Daesh affiliate claiming responsibility for many attacks.
Egyptian security forces are finding themselves increasingly bogged down in their four-year fight against a Daesh affiliate in the country’s northern Sinai Peninsula, despite billions of dollars in US counterterrorism aid. The struggle has cost the lives of hundreds of police and soldiers.
