The State Department also emphasised the long partnership between the US and Egypt in confronting terrorism, saying that “for decades, the United States has been and remains Egypt’s strong partner” in the region.
State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said that the US expresses its “profound condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones in this heinous attack."
The Egyptian Armed Forces announced on Saturday the death of an officer and 10 soldiers and the injury of five others as the army thwarted an attack launched by a terrorists targeting a water lifting station east of Suez Canal in Sinai.
The Egyptian army said that “the remaining terrorists are currently being hunted down and are besieged in an isolated area in Sinai.”
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which is the first major terror attack of its kind in recent years.
Terrorist attacks in North Sinai have declined in recent years following massive and successive security and military operations.
These attacks targeted security forces, particularly at military and police checkpoints, as well as civilians, causing hundreds of casualties.
Meanwhile, hundreds of terrorists were killed in anti-terror military operations, according to Armed Forces periodical reports.
In 2018, the Armed Forces launched a major counterterrorist drive, Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018, that has succeeded in near eradication of terrorism from North Sinai as well as the Nile Delta and desert areas.
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