Egyptian Army soldiers patrol in an armored vehicle backed by a helicopter gunship during a sweep through villages in Sheikh Zweid, northern Sinai (Photo: Reuters)
A six-year-old child died and four others were wounded early Sunday when a mortar shell hit a house in the village of Sheikh Zweid in North Sinai, Aswat Masriya reported.
A source in the Egyptian army told Aswat Masriya that the shell hit the house during clashes between the armed forces and takfiri (fundamentalist Islamist) groups.
The source highlighted that the army does not use mortar shells in its confrontations with such militant groups.
The source also added that two other shells landed in North Sinai's Al-Arish.
A medical source in Al-Arish Hospital confirmed they received the body of a six-year-old child and four others from the same family severely injured.
Egypt's army is countering an insurgency in North Sinai that has so far led to the deaths of hundreds of police and army personnel.
A surge in violence followed the bloody dispersal of a Cairo sit-in supporting ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in August 2013, moving militant activity to Egypt's capital and the Nile Delta, as well as Upper Egypt.
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