Islamist gunmen stage multiple attacks on Egyptian forces in Sinai

Islamist gunmen stage multiple attacks on Egyptian forces in Sinai(JPost).

Islamist gunmen staged multiple attacks on security forces in Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula early on Friday, two days after the army overthrew elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, security sources and state television reported.

The security sources said a soldier was killed and two were wounded when a police station in Rafah on the border with the Gaza Strip came under rocket fire. The police post is close to the local headquarters of military intelligence.
Earlier, attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at army checkpoints guarding El-Arish airport, close to the border with the Gaza Strip and Israel, in the latest of a string of security incidents in the lawless region, the sources said.
It was not clear whether the attacks were coordinated and in reaction to Morsi's removal. Islamist militants believed to have links to al-Qaida have established a foothold in the sparsely populated desert peninsula, sometimes in league with local Beduin smugglers and with Palestinian terrorists from Gaza.
Egypt has struggled to control security in the region since the ousting of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi said earlier on Thursday that while he does not envision Morsi's ouster posing a security threat to Israel, risk could come from Sinai, where decreased presence of the Egyptian army could present an opportunity for Islamist militants to act from the peninsula against Israel.
"This is a scenario that the IDF and the defense system are thinking about, and I'm sure are prepared for," Ashkenazi said, adding that for the time being, he sees no reason to interfere in Egypt.Read the full story here.

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