Egyptian border guards have discovered a 10-metre-deep smuggling tunnel along the frontier region of North Sinai, while conducting counter-terrorism activities in the region, the army said.

The tunnel had been used by Islamist militants to smuggle arms, the military said in a statement on Wednesday.

The army said it found the tunnel while carrying out operations to stem the Islamist insurgency taking place in North Sinai -- an insurgency which the military says has killed hundreds of police and army personnel in recent years.

Egypt has launched a campaign to destroy a network of smuggling tunnels connecting the besieged Gaza Strip with the Sinai Peninsula, which authorities see as a weapons smuggling route for the insurgents in Egypt's Sinai desert.

In October 2014, the Egyptian military said it has destroyed a total of 1,813 tunnels in Sinai since 2011.

Wednesday's statement added that border guards also foiled a recent attempt to smuggleweapons, ammunitions and drugs through the country's western border.



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