Egypt in ‘major operation’ in Sinai, 29 militants killed

Egypt’s army said Tuesday it had launched a “major military operation” against the Islamic State group in the Sinai Peninsula, killing 29 jihadists and leaving two soldiers dead.

“Units of the police and army launched Operation Right of the Martyr at dawn to eliminate terrorist elements in Rafah, Sheikh Zuweid and El-Arish in North Sinai,” the army said in a statement.

“Twenty-nine miscreants were killed… while an officer and a non-commissioned soldier were killed and four others wounded when their vehicle was blown up by a bomb.”

The army often reports large death tolls among the insurgents but they are impossible to verify and there has been little noticeable impact on the ability of IS to carry out deadly attacks on the security forces.

Egypt has been struggling to quell an insurgency in the peninsula since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The government says hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed, many of them in attacks claimed by IS’s Sinai Province affiliate.