Egyptian Army begins demolition of underground tunnels in Sinai

The Egyptian Armed Forces began at dawn today to close and demolish the openings of smugglers' underground tunnels leading from the Egyptian side into Gaza in order to prevent smugglers' and terrorists' infiltration. The Middle East News Agency quoted Egyptian security sources as saying that a large number of tunnels remotest from residential blocks in Rafah city were demolished in an ongoing bid to purge the border region and to prevent infiltrators and protect the country using recently-introduced equipment. It is presumed that more than 1200 underground tunnels existed according to local sources. A local security source in north Sinai stated that the security campaign continues to purge Sinai from gunmen and terrorists with participation from the Egyptian Armed Forces and the Police who used Apache" helicopters. According to the same source, the campaign continued on Wednesday in many parts of Sinai for the second day consecutively and is expected to continue for upcoming days until Sinai has completely been purged from terrorists and outlaws who jeopardize Egypt's national security. The security campaigns began in the early hours of dawn on Wednesday targeting terrorists and outlaws hideouts in various parts of Sinai aimed at imposing control and the rule of law in order to restore security and stability to Sinai.