Cairo - The Egyptian Ministry of Interior issued instructions to the Customs Department through the Department of Combating Public Monetary Crimes to halt the final release of sports utility vehicles that may enter the country and notify the Department of Combating Public Monetary Crimes of all such vehicles that have already entered the country recently. The Ministry of Interior's decision to ban sports utility vehicles comes after such vehicles were used in several terrorist operations, the latest of which was the ambushing of the monastery in Minya which resulted in the death of 21 people. In March 2017, The Egyptian government imposed traffic restrictions in north and central Sinai as part of the campaign against the Islamic insurgency in the region. In July 2015 Egypt issued a decree banning 4X4 vehicles in army-operations zones in Sinai.
