[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Egyptian warplanes killed 25 Islamist turbans in North Sinai on Saturday, security sources said, as the Egyptian president visited the province after a major escalation of the conflict there.The sources said the air strikes hit krazed killer targets near the town of Sheikh Zuweid, destroying weapons and explosives caches.
They also said security forces had found about half a ton of explosives in a tunnel on the border between the Sinai and Gazoo.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi inspected soldiers and police in El-Arish, the historic provincial capital, on Saturday, the presidency said in statement.
Sisi, dressed in military garb for the first time since becoming president just over a year ago, told troops at least 200 turbans had been killed in the fighting in recent days, but added:
"For me to say that things are under control is not enough, things are totally stable.
"I tell Egyptians ... the size of forces here (in Sinai) is one percent of Egypt's army."
Militants launched a coordinated assault on military checkpoints in North Sinai on Wednesday, leading to day-long fighting which left more than 100 turbans and 17 soldiers dead, the army said.
Egyptian air strikes killed 23 Islamist turbans the next day, security sources said.
Hours after Sisi's speech in El-Arish, Sinai Province said in a statement posted on Twitter it had attacked two army vehicles with two bombs in the area of Sheikh Zuweid.
Rooters could not verify the authenticity of the statement.
Security and medical sources said two people had been killed and one maimed when a rocket-propelled grenade, fired at security forces, hit a house in Sheikh Zuweid.
North Sinai is the epicenter of an insurgency in which an Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
-affiliated group called Sinai Province is most active. The Sinai Peninsula borders the Gazoo Strip, Israel and the Suez Canal.