General Mohamed Samir said the Egyptian army does not lie about casualty figures, called on local media 'not to repeat the information reported by foreign media outlets and wait for the statements of the armed forces' None of the militant groups can impose controls on a single millimetre of North Sinai soil and the army will "exterminate" them all, the Egyptian military spokesman said late Wednesday night, hours after the largest assault by Islamic State-affiliated Sinai Province against security forces in the peninsula in a year. The Egyptian armed forces does not lie under any circumstance, Brigadier General Mohamed Samir said in a phone call to CBC TV Lazem Nefham (We have to understand) in response to questions on discrepancies between media reports on the number of causalities in today's battles and army released figures. Samir called on local media "not to rely on information from foreign media outlets and wait for the statements of the armed forces." "We control the situation in Sinai 100%," Samir said. The army announced in a statement on Wednesday night that it killed over 100 militants in the lengthy confrontations that followed simultaneous attacks on security checkpoints. Foreign media outlets had earlier quoted anonymous security officials as saying 64 soldiers have been killed fighting militants in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, before the army announced on Wednesday night that only 17 military personnel died. "The armed forces uses calculated force and preserves its combat creed not to injure the innocent," Samir said. An official number on civilian and police causalities have yet to be announced by the army. The militant attacks on the Egyptian army in Sinai came two days after the assassination of Egypt's top public prosecutor Hisham Barakat in Cairo, the first successful assassination of a high-level state official since the Islamist insurgency intensified following the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/134326.aspx
