ISMAILIA: Egyptian warplanes killed 25 Islamist militants in North Sinai on Saturday, security sources said, as the Egyptian president visited the province after a major escalation of the conflict there.

The sources said the air strikes hit militant targets near the town of Sheikh Zuweid, destroying weapons and explosives caches.

They also said security forces had found about half a ton of explosives in a tunnel on the border between the Sinai and Gaza.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inspected soldiers and police in El-Arish, the provincial capital, on Saturday, the presidency said in statement.

Sisi, dressed in military garb for the first time since becoming president just over a year ago, told troops at least 200 militants had been killed in the fighting in recent days, but added: “For me to say that things are under control is not enough, things are totally stable”.

I tell Egyptians ... the size of forces here (in Sinai) is one per cent of Egypt’s army.” Militants launched a coordinated assault on military checkpoints in North Sinai on Wednesday, leading to day-long fighting which left more than 100 militants and 17 soldiers dead, the army said.

Egyptian air strikes killed 23 Islamist militants the next day, security sources said.

North Sinai is the epicentre of an insurgency in which an IS-affiliated group called Sinai Province is most active. The Sinai Peninsula borders the Gaza Strip, Israel and the Suez Canal. The insurgency, aimed at toppling the Cairo government, has intensified since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi after mass protests against his rule in 2013.

On Friday, Sinai Province said in a statement posted on Twitter by supporters it had launched three Grad rockets towards “occupied Palestine”.

An Israeli military source said the rockets landed in Israel without causing any casualties and had been fired from Sinai.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2015

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