Egyptian authorities issued on Monday sentences against members of the "ISIS-Sinai" organization, which is active in the peninsula.
Meanwhile, Egypt's Attorney General Nabil Sadek referred a total of 555 suspects to military trial on charges of belonging to ISIS-Sinai, forming 43 terrorist cells and committing 63 attacks against police and military personnel in North Sinai.
The charges include the killing of Major Ahmed Hassan, deputy chief of al-Qosimah police station, military officer Ahmed Mohamd el-Sayyed Abdelrazek and 10 military conscripts. They were also charged with targeting 19 armored military vehicles.
Only 216 of the 555 suspects are in custody while the other 339 are fugitives, Sadek said.
The Supreme State Security Prosecution found evidence that the accused took over the leadership, joined the elements of the terrorist organization in Sinai and provided them with funds and equipment and other means of logistic support, killed and initiated the killing of officers and members of the armed forces and police, targeted some military checkpoints and vehicles in northern Sinai with bomb blasts and destroyed the natural gas line linking the cities of Port Said and Sheikh Zuwaid.
In February, Egypt’s security forces launched an all-out offensive against militants, deploying tens of thousands of troops and police backed by fighter jets, helicopter gunships, navy vessels and tanks in Sinai and in the Western Desert.
At the end of November, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi gave orders for the army and police to "use all the force to root out terrorism."
Egypt has been battling ISIS elements for years, but the insurgency gathered steam and grew deadlier in 2013.
Also Monday, a criminal court in Cairo sentenced nine suspects to life in prison on terror-related charges.
The Giza Criminal Court sentenced another two defendants each to five years on the same charges, which include joining ISIS.
The court also acquitted three suspects in the case. The verdicts can be appealed.
