Car bombing kills 26 Egyptian soldiers in Sinai Peninsula

President El Sisi calls national defence council meeting after one of the deadliest attacks on security forces since Mohammed Morsi was removed from office last year.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi called a meeting of the national defence council after a bombing in Sinai killed at least 26 soldiers on October 24, 2014. Egyptian Presidency / AFP / June 8, Show more

CAIRO // A car bomb in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula killed at least 26 soldiers on Friday and wounded 28 others, in one of the deadliest attacks against security forces in the past year.

Security officials said another three members of the security forces were shot dead in another attack on a checkpoint just hours after the car bombing near El Arish, the main town in north Sinai.

Militants in the peninsula have killed scores of policemen and soldiers since the military removed the Islamist former president Mohammed Morsi from office following mass protests against his rule.

The Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi, who was the army chief at the time and was elected to office this year, has pledged to eradicate the militants.

Mr El Sisi on Friday summoned a meeting of the national defence council – the country’s highest security body – to discuss the latest killings, his office said.

Security officials said the car bomb attack targeted an army checkpoint and was carried out by suspected Islamist militants.

“Most of the wounded have been seriously injured and not all of them have been taken to hospital yet,” a health ministry official said.

The car bombing is the latest in a string of attacks against security forces in Egypt.

In August 2013, just weeks after the army removed Mr Morsi, 25 soldiers were killed in the Sinai when gunmen opened fire with automatic rifles and rocket launchers on two buses transporting troops.

In July this year, 22 border guards were killed in the western desert near the border with Libya.

Last month militants killed 17 policemen in two bombings in Sinai and later released footage of the attacks.

Those bombings were claimed by Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, the most active militant group in Egypt. It tried to assassinate the interior minister in Cairo last year with a car bomb.

The group has expressed support for the ISIL extremist group that has overrun large areas in Iraq and Syria, although it has not formally pledged its allegiance.

The military has said it killed at least 22 militants this month, including an Ansar Beit Al Maqdis commander.

The group has acknowledged the arrest or deaths of militants, but the army has been unable so far to crush them despite a massive operation in which it has deployed attack helicopters and tanks.

The latest bombing came after an Egyptian military court on Tuesday sentenced to death seven members of Ansar Beit Al Maqdis for attacks on the army.

Meanwhile, masked men set fire to two cars belonging to the consulate of Saudi Arabia in the city of Suez on Friday morning, local security sources and the state news agency reported.

Security sources said at least four men threw Molotov cocktails at the cars.

The state news agency Mena said the cars were parked in a lot in Suez’s Arbaeen district.

Saudi Arabia has been a strong backer of Egypt since President El Sisi removed Mr Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, from office, and the attack appeared to be the first on Saudi property or personnel in Egypt since then.

Major General Tareq Butcher, director of security in Suez city, said authorities were working to identify the perpetrators of the attack.

The embassy of Saudi Arabia in Cairo declined to comment on the incident.

Tens of thousands of Brotherhood supporters are in jail as part of a security crackdown against the group since Mr Morsi’s ouster.

The Muslim Brotherhood says it is a peaceful movement but authorities accuse its members of being involved in the Sinai Peninsula-based Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers in the 15 months since Mr Morsi’s overthrow.

Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab allies the UAE and Kuwait have given billions in cash and petroleum products to help Mr El Sisi’s government revive the Egyptian economy.

* Agence France-Presse and Reuters