Twenty-five police soldiers were killed in Rafah on Monday after an armed attack on two buses transporting Central Security Forces. Armed individuals blocked the buses carrying the soldiers on the Al-Arish/Rafah road in the Matala region and forced them to pull over, before executing them, according to a military spokesman. The attackers took the buses and fled into the desert. All but two soldiers were killed; the survivors were transported via plane to hospitals in the nearby city of Al-Arish. The attack follows recent violent clashes in Sinai between the army and armed militant groups. The militant group Al-Jihadiya Al-Salafeya (The Salafi Jihad) denied its association with the attack on its Facebook page, and blamed military intelligence.