Egyptian armed forces on Sunday carried out air strikes on suspected terrorist sites in North Sinai, state news agency MENA reported. The strikes, which come after a major attack on security forces on Friday, destroyed ammunition storehouses and several vehicles. They also killed six suspected militants and injured 11 others, according to Al-Ahram daily. Apache helicopters struck at targets in Al-Arish and Sheikh Zuweid. Two militant attacks in North Sinai killed at least 32 security personnel on Friday, the deadliest day for Egypt's army in the latest surge of militant activity in the peninsula. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said on Saturday that the attacks were carried out with "foreign support," without identifying a specific group or country. The airstrikes on Sunday took place after the military introduced a three-month state of emergency in parts of North Sinai. On Saturday, eight suspected jihadists were killed as military airstrikes pounded militant hideouts in the region, security sources said. The Egyptian army has been facing a decade-long jihadist militant insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, with militant attacks increasing over the past year and expanding into Cairo and the Nile Delta, killing hundreds of army and police personnel. Civilians too have been caught up in the violence. The army has repeatedly announced killing or arresting hundreds of militants in its operations in North Sinai. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/114045.aspx
