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6 militants killed in security raids in Egypt's Sinai

13 December 2014 22:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least six militants were killed and 11 others arrested on Saturday as Egyptian military launched two operations on their hideouts in northern Sinai province, a local senior official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"Eight of those killed and arrested belong to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM) group," the official said, noting that the forces managed to destroy 27 terrorist cells, 10 houses and five vehicles belonging to the militants and seized an amount of weapons and ammunition in the cities of Sheikh Zuweid and Arish.

The ABM group, which was founded in 2011 and claimed responsibility for dozens of deadly attacks against Egypt's military and police personnel, was designated as a terror organization by Egypt and the United States.

The group has recently pledged allegiance with the regional Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and changed its name to "Sinai State" as a group loyal to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Egypt has been facing a rising wave of terrorism since the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the military in July 2013 following mass protests against his one-year rule.

The following crackdown on Morsi's supporters has left about 1,000 killed and thousands more injured and arrested. Anti-government attacks have since extended from the restive Sinai to the capital Cairo and other provinces across the country.

The security forces intensified anti-terror military operations and raised alert level in Sinai in the wake of a car-bomb attack that killed around 30 Egyptian soldiers in late October.