The spokesman of the armed forces announced the killing of three "terrorist elements" in North Sinai on Sunday as it continues its operations to combat militancy in the volatile Sinai Peninsula. Several raids took place on Saturday, according to a Sunday statement from the office of the armed forces spokesman. As a result, 23 "terrorist elements" were arrested across four governorates including North Sinai, Ismailia, Daqahleya and Port Said. The three were killed as a result of an exchange of fire with troops during the raids, according to the statement. The raids also resulted in the destruction of a "headquarters and gathering point of terrorist elements" as well as a weapons and ammunition storage site "used by terrorist groups to carry out criminal operations against the armed forces and civilian police elements" in North Sinai. Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis (ABM) pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) that rebranded itself as ‘Islamic State' earlier this year. The Egyptian group also renamed itself ‘State of Sinai' following the acceptance of the pledge by ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. The name change was confirmed in a video released on Friday night in which ABM claimed a deadly attack on Egyptian security forces on 24 October in which at least 27 soldiers were killed.
