The Egyptian military foiled on July 18 a terrorist attack in the town of Sheikh Zuweid, located in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
The remains of ISIS suicide bomber. Click to see full-size image.
Col. Tamer Rifai, a spokesman for the army, said that a suicide bomber of ISIS attempted to target a checkpoint inside Sheikh Zuweid in the early morning. However, Egyptian soldiers were able to stop him.
“The terrorist individual was targeted before he reaches the checkpoint, this led to the detonation of his explosive belt which killed him and led to the martyrdom of one of the heroes of the armed forces,” Col. Tamer Rifai said in a press release.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that five Egyptian service members were killed or injured.
A day earlier, the terrorist group’s cells abducted and decapitated four civilians east of the area of Bir al-Abd. A security source in the group claimed, in a offical statement released by Amaq news agency, that the civilians were “spies” of the Egyptian intelligence.
The remains ISIS cells in the Sinai Peninsula increased their attacks in the last two months. This could eventually force the Egyptian military to launch a large-scale security operation to similar to last year’s “Sinai-2018.”