Three civilians have
sustained injuries in clashes between militants and local tribes in
Egypt’s volatile Sinai Peninsula, where the government is battling a
Daesh-led insurgency.
Egyptian security sources said
clashes erupted on the outskirts of the border town of Rafah, located
340 kilometers east of the capital, Cairo, on Sunday.
The sources,
who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the injuries were the result
of an RPG attack launched by the militants on a truck allegedly
smuggling cigarettes into the area.
The officials noted that the Sunday attack had been in response to an earlier kidnapping of three militants by the local tribes.
This file photo shows Velayat Sinai Takfiri militants in Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula.
The
Sinai Peninsula has been under a state of emergency since October 2014,
after a deadly terrorist attack left 33 Egyptian soldiers dead.
Over
the past years, militants have been carrying out anti-government
activities and fatal attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil caused in
Egypt after the democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was
ousted by a military-led coup in July 2013.
The Velayat Sinai
militant group, previously known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, has claimed
responsibility for most of the assaults, mainly targeting the army and
police. In November 2014, the group pledged allegiance to the Daesh
Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly operating in Iraq and Syria.
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