Egypt’s Interior Ministry stated on Sunday that security forces have killed members of a terrorist group in North Sinai during a fire exchange. The terrorists were planning to launch attacks against police and armed forces in the area.
The Ministry issued a statement reporting that three policemen were injured during the operation.
The security units found in the possession of the terrorists three automatic rifles, ammunition, 21 automatic weapons caches, and a number of tools used in the manufacture of improvised explosive devices.
They also found a weapon which turned out to be stolen after the group attacked a police officer in 2018.
The operation occurred one day after an Egyptian security source announced that four terrorists were killed during an attack by unidentified gunmen in an ambush in al-Mahajir area of El-Arish city.
The source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) that the attack also killed three military recruits and injured two others. The attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the ambush and then launched an armed attack.
The Interior Ministry revealed in a statement there was a group of terrorists in Jelbana area in North Sinai that was preparing and planning for a series of attacks against the armed forces and the police.
The group was found in a car while preparing for an attack, and after the police tightened the siege around it, the group opened fire at the forces which led to killing all the terrorists.
The Egyptian army and police forces have been conducting a major security operation in North and Central Sinai for almost a year and a half to clear the area of extremists belonging mostly to the organization of the Sinai Province affiliated with ISIS, formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.
The Interior Ministry pointed out that during an operation to capture the terrorist group, one of the officers involved in the mission was shot and injured.
In another operation, the Interior Ministry said it had obtained information on the presence of a terrorist operative, Ahmed Adel Mohammed Said dubbed Abu Hamza, who was surrounded in his hideout, after he fired shots at the forces, leading to his death and the injury of two officers and a policeman.
