Egypt army arrests 14 'Jihadists' in Sinai

Egypt's army arrested 14 affiliates of "Jihadist groups" on Sunday evening, including a Palestinian, in Sinai's el-Arish, military sources said. Soldiers arrested 12 Jihadists who were located by an unmanned drone, several of whom are "dangerous terrorists," Egyptian military officials told Ma'an. Another Jihadist was arrested at a checkpoint west of el-Arish in possession of a SIM card with footage of military training for Takfiri fighters, the officials said. The 48-year-old admitted to affiliation to Takfiri groups, they added. Separately, troops in an armored vehicle spotted a man acting suspiciously. He was arrested and found to be carrying an explosive device, the army sources said. Egypt's army is planning a large-scale military operation in Sinai "to clean it up from terrorist and criminal cells" following intensified unrest in the desert peninsula, a military official said Sunday. "Coordination is ongoing between the Egyptians and the Israelis to bring military vehicles, troops and jets into Sinai to fight terror," he told Ma'an. The 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt has imposed strict controls on deployments in Sinai. On Monday, an armed group attacked a security checkpoint near el-Arish beach, killing an Egyptian soldier. Abed al-Wahid al-Sayd was shot in the head by a sniper, security sources said. The attackers fled the scene. Security sources said that the militants likely belonged to Jihadist groups. They reported other attacks on a police station and three security checkpoints early Monday. During 10 minutes of violent clashes, one group fired an RPG toward el-Arish. Policeman Samih Mohammad, 22, suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. Several Islamist militants have publicly threatened to carry out raids in reprisal for the army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday. On Sunday, militants blew up a gas pipeline in el-Arish, a day after gunmen killed a Coptic priest in the North Sinai city. That came after armed supporters of Mursi had stormed the provincial headquarters in el-Arish and raised the black banner of Al-Qaeda-inspired militants on Friday night, an AFP correspondent said. Also Friday, militants launched coordinated rocket and machine gun attacks on Egyptian army and police checkpoints in the Sinai, killing one soldier and wounding two others, Egyptian medical sources said. A police station and a military intelligence building in the border town of Rafah also came under fire from rockets, security sources said.