Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Egypt’s military has been battling Islamist fighters along the border with the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian Army deployed hundreds of soldiers, backed by security forces, around the divided city of Rafah.

Palestinian sources said Egyptian AH-64 attack helicopters fired air-to-ground missiles along the 14-kilometer border with the Gaza Strip.

On Sept. 26, the Army targeted the village of Nag Shabana, along the Gaza border south of Rafah. Witnesses said Egyptian helicopters and other
aircraft flew over the southern Gaza Strip for the counter-insurgency operation.

The attack on Nag, said to have captured scores of suspected insurgents, was part of Egypt’s crackdown on the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. Security sources said the Egyptian Army and security forces repeatedly infiltrated southern Gaza in their attempt to stop the flow of fighters and weapons to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

So far, the crackdown has not halted Islamist attacks on Egyptian
soldiers and police. Since Sept. 27, at least four Egyptian soldiers and
police officers were killed in ambushes around the northern Sinai provincial
capital of El Arish.

  AH-64 attack helicopters, Egyptian Army launches attack on insurgents at southern Gaza border, El Arish, Rafah, Sinai Peninsula