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10 Egyptian Soldiers Killed in Central Sinai Fighting | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Egyptian security forces in Sinai. AFP


Ten members of Egypt’s security forces were killed in two roadside bombings as they clashed with jihadists in central Sinai, the army said on Thursday.

Fifteen extremists were also killed in the fighting, the military said in a statement, without revealing when the incidents took place. Seven other jihadists were arrested.

The military said the clashes broke out when soldiers raided “an extremely dangerous” jihadist hideout.

The militant group staging the insurgency pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014 and adopted the name Sinai Province.

A military spokesman said that during the raid the security forces found and destroyed half a ton of TNT explosives, and seized two four-wheelers containing hand grenades and hundreds of mobile phones.

ISIS had said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon that it blew up two army vehicles during clashes south of the Sinai city of El-Arish.

The jihadists have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since 2013. The attacks have mostly been confined to Sinai, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, but the jihadists have also struck elsewhere.

They have also forced Coptic Christians to flee the peninsula after killing seven of them in El-Arish, after a bombing of a Coptic church in Cairo in December that killed 29 people.