Egyptian military forces kill 7 militants in restive Sinai

Egyptian military forces have killed seven militants and arrested five others in separate shoot-outs in the volatile Sinai Peninsula.

According to a statement released by the army spokesman Brigadier General Mohammed Samir late on Monday, three militants were killed in an exchange of fire in the border town of Rafah.

The statement said four other armed men died in a separate incident when Egyptian soldiers ambushed and shot them dead in a house in the same town where five gunmen were arrested and five others wounded.

Sinai Peninsula has long been considered as a safe haven for gunmen who use the region as a base for their acts of terror.

Since the ouster of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on July 3 last year, gunmen have launched almost daily attacks on the peninsula, killing members of security forces.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was toppled in a military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s current president and the then army commander.

Following Morsi’s ouster, Sisi announced his candidacy for the nation’s presidency and was sworn in as president after winning an election in which less than 50 percent of eligible voters participated.

Sisi is accused of leading the suppression of Muslim Brotherhood supporters as hundreds of them have been killed in clashes with Egyptian security forces over the last year.

Rights groups say the army’s crackdown on the supporters of Morsi has left over 1,400 people dead and 22,000 arrested, while some 200 people have been sentenced to death in mass trials.