Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — The Egyptian Army has again been struck hard in the turbulent Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency said four soldiers were killed on June 28 in northeastern Sinai.

MENA said the soldiers were ambushed by suspected Islamic insurgents as they were driven in a pickup along the highway between the North Sinai provincial capital of El Arish and the border city of Rafah.

“The gunmen forced the soldiers, who were returning from a holiday and dressed in civilian clothing, out of their vehicle and shot them before escaping,” MENA said.

This marked one of the deadliest attacks on the Army in 2014. The killings took place amid a renewed offensive by insurgency militias, including Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, in northeastern Sinai. On June 28, the Israeli daily Maariv said Egypt captured 15 ISIL fighters in Sinai.

Islamic insurgents also attacked a senior police officer near his home
outside El Arish and two bodyguards were killed. Egyptian sources also
reported a gun battle between security forces and gunmen in the peninsula.
No casualties were reported.

Egypt’s capital has also been targeted. On June 28, an 18-year-old girl
and her mother were killed in the detonation of two bombs in an unfinished
telephone exchange in the Cairo suburb of October 6.

  Egypt captures 15 ISIL fighters as ambush kills four soldiers in Sinai, Egyptian soldiers in civilian clothes killed by Sinai insurgents, El Arish, ISIL, Rafah