Egyptian Army soldiers patrol in an armored vehicle backed by a helicopter gunship during a sweep through villages in Sheikh Zuweyid, North Sinai (Photo: Reuters)
Three policemen and five civilians were injured in an explosion in the North Sinai city of Al-Arish on Sunday, state news agency MENA reported.
A security source said two bombs struck adjacent houses inhabited by several police personnel in the Karm Abo Negila area of Arish.
Large parts of the houses reportedly collapsed as a result of the explosion.
Meanwhile, the victims were transferred to hospital.
Increasing numbers of civilians have recently fallen in the ongoing conflict between Egypt’s police and army and Islamist militants in the restive North Sinai.
On 13 June, assailants targeted a policeman’s house in North Sinai with an RPG that reportedly missed the target and blasted the walls of a nearby house, injuring a family of six.
Media reports say civilians have fallen as a result of attacks carried out by both sides of the conflict.
However, president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has asserted that military forces remain committed to protecting civilian lives.
Militants have killed hundreds of police and army personnel in the past year and a half in North Sinai, while the authorities have announced that they also killed hundreds of Islamist militants in military campaigns in the governorate.
The Islamist group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, which has pledged allegiance to the regional Islamic State (IS) last year, has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against security forces in Sinai.
Sinai is an underprivileged area of Egypt, lacking infrastructural and economic development. However, some spots are better off, especially in the south of the peninsula where tourism thrives in towns such as Sharm El-Sheikh and Dahab.
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