7 Egyptian soldiers, 59 militants killed in Sinai: Army

The Egyptian military says at least seven soldiers and nearly 60 militants have been killed in separate instances of violence in the Sinai Peninsula.

On Sunday, the Egyptian military said in a statement that a total of seven soldiers, including three killed in a rocket attack at a checkpoint, had lost their lives on Saturday.

It added that 59 militants had been killed by military forces in North Sinai.

“The men of the armed forces backed by air support targeted several terrorist dens on Saturday,” the military said in its statement, which also listed 14 sites where its forces carried out operations.

The number of dead militants may rise as the army said its forces were still counting those targeted. Four militants have been also captured.

Reports on July 18 said the army forces had killed 40 militants in the region.

The Egyptian army has deployed troops, as well as military hardware to the Sinai Peninsula, where security forces have been fighting surging militancy since the former army chief and current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted the North African country’s first democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi in a military coup in July 2013. The Egyptian army claims to have killed 1,100 militants in North Sinai.

The region has been threatened by a local terror group known as Sinai Province, which pledged allegiance to ISIL Takfiri terrorist group in November 2014. The group has been behind many of the attacks that have killed scores of Egyptian police officers, soldiers, and judiciary officials as well as civilians over the past months.