The armed forces posted a statement to their official Facebook page Monday claiming the killing of an alleged Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis member, as well as the destruction of a field hospital they said was used by Al-Qaeda-inspired militants in North Sinai. According to the statement, the field hospital was found during raids on a number of suspected "dens and outposts". The field hospital was said to contain a room for surgical operations, surgical instruments, as well as anaesthetics and medical solutions. The army also said it had found medical equipment such as oxygen cylinders and a refrigerator to store blood for transfusions. The field hospital was destroyed after its discovery. The army added it had killed an alleged Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis member, Yusuf Mohamed Hamad Hassan, after an exchange of gunfire with army forces. Soldiers then searched his house, and discovered a number of weapons, as well as ammunition and military uniforms. Other army operations in the area resulted in the capture of four suspected militants and the destruction of six smuggling tunnels and 15 small houses that the army claims were used by militants to attack security forces. The intensity of military operations in North Sinai has increased dramatically since Mohamed Morsi's ouster on 3 July. Militants based in the largely lawless and underdeveloped area have used the area to stage attacks against security forces both inside and outside of the Sinai. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has claimed car bombings, bomb attacks as well as assassinations in Cairo since 3 July. On 24 January, a day before the nation celebrated the third anniversary of the 2011 revolution, a massive car bomb struck a security directorate in the Abdeen neighbourhood of Cairo, for which the group claimed responsibility. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis also claimed the suicide bombing of a bus full of tourists in Taba on 16 February, which it said was part of an "economic war" against the interim government.
