EGYPT: Fifteen troops killed or wounded in North Sinai

Funeral prayers were held in Cairo and Sharqiya on Sunday to mourn the deaths of an officer and soldiers killed in a deadly attack on Egypt’s military in the Sinai Peninsula. An attack Saturday on an Egyptian army checkpoint in the restive Sinai left 15 soldiers dead or wounded and seven of the suspected Islamic […]

Funeral prayers were held in Cairo and Sharqiya on Sunday to mourn the deaths of an officer and soldiers killed in a deadly attack on Egypt’s military in the Sinai Peninsula.

An attack Saturday on an Egyptian army checkpoint in the restive Sinai left 15 soldiers dead or wounded and seven of the suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS) fighters were killed, the military said.

The breakdown of military casualties was not immediately clear. Two security sources told Reuters news agency some of the injuries were serious.

ISIL later claimed responsibility for the attack on its Amaq website. It said it killed at least 15 Egyptian troops, revising an earlier figure of 20 dead south of the provincial capital of Arish after clashes with “various kinds of weapons”.

The group did not provide evidence for its claim.