Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — The Egyptian Army has been stunned by a major insurgency strike in the Sinai Peninsula.

At least 11 soldiers were killed in a bombing on a highway in northeastern Sinai on Sept. 2.

Officials said an improvised explosive device believed planted by Islamist fighters targeted an army armored personnel carrier outside Wefaq along the road from Rafah to Sheik Zweid near the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Sheik Zweid has been deemed the leading stronghold of Ansar, a target of numerous operations by the Egyptian Air Force’s AH-64 Apache attack helicopter fleet. Since late August, authorities have found six decapitated bodies, believed to have been executed by Ansar, a supporter of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“There was a gun battle after the explosion,” a security source said.

This marked the latest major insurgency strike in northeastern Sinai, the stronghold of both Palestinian and Bedouin militias involved in the revolt against the Cairo government. In August 2013, 25 officers from the Central Security Forces were killed in the same area as the Sept. 2 attack.

The sources did not identify the APC targeted by the insurgents, believed linked to Ansar Beit Maqdis. Over the last year, the army was said to have deployed heavy armored vehicles meant to withstand roadside
bombings.

The army declared an alert in wake of the latest strike, which also injured four soldiers. The alert included a manhunt from Rafah to El Arish, the main area of operations for Ansar and other militias.

“The war against terrorism will require patience if we want to prevent the loss of civilians,” Egyptian President Abdul Fatah Sisi told a U.S. congressional delegation.

On Aug. 31, six Ansar fighters, including a commander, were killed in Wefaq and El Arish. The commander was identified as Fayez Abdullah Hamdan Abu Sheta, said to have been killed in an army operation in El Arish that
included main battle tanks.

ISIL has launched a recruitment drive in Sinai and warned of attacks in the peninsula. The movement urged Islamists to abandon such groups as the ousted Muslim Brotherhood and aligned militias.

“My advice to sincere young people is stay away from them and realize that they are a lost cause,” ISIL said in a recent video.

  11 Egyptian soldiers killed by ISIL-tied IED attack in Sinai, Ansar Beit Maqdis, Bedouin militias, El Arish, Wefaq