At least five soldiers have been killed by unknown gunmen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, according to military officials, in the latest attack to hit the troubled area.

"The armed forces mourn with great sadness and sorrow the five martyrs who were martyred in Sinai at the hands of disloyal fundamentalist elements, enemies of the nation and religion," the military said in a statement on Monday.

The statement did not give any further details about the location or the circumstances surrounding the incident, but online media reports said the attack happened late on Sunday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the deadly incident.

OPINION: Sinai insurgency - An enduring risk

An armed movement in the rugged and thinly populated Sinai Peninsula has gained pace since the military toppled President Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, in mid-2013.

Since then, hundreds of police officers and soldiers have been killed in attacks.

Earlier in January, a truck-bomb attack on a checkpoint killed at least seven police officers in the city of El-Arish in northern Sinai.

In November, a car-bomb attack on a checkpoint in Sinai killed eight soldiers.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group's Egyptian branch in the Sinai Peninsula has also carried out several such attacks over the past two years.

The Sinai Peninsula borders Israel and Palestine's Gaza Strip. </s> Egypt's military said there was a clash at a checkpoint Saturday between suspected jihadists and the military on the Sinai Peninsula. 

 

 A military spokesman told AFP in a statement that seven militants were killed in the attack in the restive North Sinai, while 15 soldiers were either killed or wounded.

Army spokesman Tamer el-Refai said in the statement that "an officer and 14 non-commissioned soldiers were killed or wounded." He did give an exact number for the death toll. 

 

 El-Refai said security forces would go after "the terrorist elements to eliminate them." </s> Cairo: The Egyptian army said on Monday that assailants killed five soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula, where security forces have been targeted in a spate of terror attacks.

“The armed forces mourn with great sadness and sorrow the five martyrs who were martyred in Sinai at the hands of disloyal fundamentalist elements, enemies of the nation and religion,” the military said.

The statement did not elaborate on the cause of their deaths.

Terrorists have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in 2013 unleashed a bloody crackdown on his supporters.

The crackdown decimated the Islamist movement and killed hundreds of his followers, and set off an Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds of security personnel.

Most of the attacks have taken place in the Sinai Peninsula, but attacks have also been carried out in other areas, including Cairo.

And the majority of these attacks have been carried out by Daesh, which views Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood group as heretics. </s> CAIRO - Eight Egyptian soldiers and 14 militants were killed in a confrontation in central Sinai on Saturday, the army said in a statement.



Egypt has been fighting an Islamist insurgency in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. </s> Amnesty International says Egypt must launch an independent and thorough investigation into the recent killing of 10 men by security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

The government announced earlier this month that the 10 had been killed in a shootout in the northern Sinai city of al-Arish. But in a Monday statement, the London-based advocacy group repeated what the families of the slain men already claim — that at least six of them had already been in police custody for weeks before their deaths.

Authorities deny the charge and insist the men had participated in recent attacks targeting security forces in Sinai.

Earlier on Monday, Egypt's army said militants had killed five off-duty soldiers in Sinai after they intercepted them while traveling in a taxi on Sunday. </s> At least eight soldiers were killed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday amid an ongoing security operation in the restive region, according to the Egyptian military.

A group of 14 militants armed with explosive vests, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) attacked a military camp in central Sinai at dawn on Saturday, military spokesman Col. Tamer Rifai said in a statement.

He said military forces engaged the attackers, killing the 14 militants.

According to the spokesman, eight soldiers were killed and 15 others injured when some of the attackers detonated their explosive vests.

Saturday’s attack came as Egyptian authorities extended a state of emergency for three months, which was first imposed in April of last year after a twin church bombing claimed by Daesh terrorist group that killed dozens.

The attack comes as security forces continued a major offensive against militants blamed for a string of attacks across the country.

On Saturday, the military said its forces killed 27 suspected militants as part of the security operation that began on Feb. 9.

The Sinai Peninsula has remained the epicenter of a militant insurgency since 2013, when the army ousted Mohamed Morsi -- Egypt's first freely elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader -- in a military coup. </s> Egypt's army said Saturday seven suspected jihadists were "eliminated" and 15 soldiers killed or wounded in an attack in the Sinai Peninsula, where the military is fighting the Islamic State group.

Security forces responded to the attack on a checkpoint in restive North Sinai in an "exchange of fire", army spokesman Tamer el-Refai said in a statement, without giving a precise number for the soldiers killed.

Egypt launched a nationwide operation against militants in February 2018, mainly focused on jihadists in North Sinai province. </s> Assailants kill five Egypt soldiers in Sinai, army says

Soldiers stand on an armoured personnel carrier positioned outside the state-run television station in Cairo in this file picture taken on July 6, 2013. Five soldiers were killed today in a spate of jihadist attacks in Egypt. — Reuters picCAIRO, Jan 23 — The Egyptian army said today that assailants killed five soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula, where security forces have been targeted in a spate of jihadist attacks.

“The armed forces mourn with great sadness and sorrow the five martyrs who were martyred in Sinai at the hands of disloyal fundamentalist elements, enemies of the nation and religion,” the military said.

The statement did not elaborate on the cause of their deaths.

Jihadists have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 unleashed a bloody crackdown on his supporters.

The crackdown decimated the Islamist movement and killed hundreds of his followers, and set off a jihadist insurgency that has killed hundreds of security personnel.

Most of the attacks have taken place in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, but attacks have also been carried out in other areas including Cairo.

And the majority of these attacks have been carried out by the jihadist Islamic State group, which views Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group as heretics. — AFP </s> Egypt says five soldiers and dozens of militants were killed in recent clashes in the country's restive northern Sinai Peninsula.

Military spokesman Tamer al-Rifai issued a statement on Thursday saying the five slain troops included an officer. He says four were wounded and as many as 47 militants were killed.

The statement didn't specify when the clashes took place. The last update on Sinai released by al-Rifai was on March 11.

The statement says scores of militant hideouts and much ammunition and bombs were uncovered. It says the bombs were safely detonated by the Egyptian forces.

Egypt has been battling Islamic militants in Sinai for years. The area remains off limits for journalists, diplomats and other observers so information from there cannot be independently verified.
At least five Egyptian Army soldiers are killed by unknown gunmen in the Sinai Peninsula.