Smoke rises in Egypt's North Sinai as seen from the border of southern Gaza Strip with Egypt as Islamic State militants launched a wide-scale coordinated assault on several military checkpoints in Egypt's North Sinai on Wednesday 1 July, 2015 (Photo: Reuters)
The General Command of the Armed Forces has issued its first official statement on Wednesday’s battles against Islamist militants who attacked army posts earlier in the day.
The statement said that the army killed more than 100 militants during its counter-attacks in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah cities.
It also highlighted that 17 army personnel including four officers were killed during the fighting and 13 others were injured.
The army also said that it has destroyed 20 vehicles used by the Islamist militants to launch their attack.
According to the statement, a “terrorist group” launched simultaneous attacks at 6:55 am Wednesday on a number of armed forces checkpoints in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah using car bombs and various weaponry.
The armed forces said it managed to “thwart all attempts by the terrorists to achieve their goals."
“Egypt’s great people, your armed forces are leading a fierce war against terrorism without leniency, and we assure our great people that we have the will and insistence to extract the roots of this black terrorism," the statement read.
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