Exclusive: Non-Egyptian elements participate in Sinai attack

CAIRO – 12 September 2017: Egypt Today reveals the details of the Sinai terrorist attack Monday perpetrated by non-Egyptian elements.

Special Operations Forces reinforcements reached the place of the attack after the interior minister followed up on the whole operation.

A suicide bomber belonging to Ansar Bait al-Maqdis in Sinai targeted police vehicles that were patrolling the Arish area for roadside bombs, leading to 18 deaths of police personnel, including a Brigadier-General and another officer. Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, just as it claimed responsibility for last July’s attack of seal battalion 103, which led to 23 deaths, and the terrorist attacks in Sinai were reduced after the ousted President Mohammed Morsy.

A senior security source revealed to Egypt Today that the terrorist elements watched the forces and followed them, and then a suicide bomber blew himself up. The forces were targeted by three roadside bombs, and 12 terrorists were wearing uniforms that looked like military uniforms, who stole a car to use it in this attack.

The terrorist elements planted landmines on the road to prevent security reinforcements. They also targeted members of the ambulance staff, who were in charge of transporting the injured and dead bodies to the nearest hospital and were also injured when another group of militants opened fire at them, with five of them being injured.

Security reinforcements were sent from terrorism combating elements and special operation forces, as well as reinforcements from Cairo, to arrive Monday evening to participate in a large-scale operation searching for the actors of that terrorist attack, the source added.

The official source stated for the first time that there are non-Egyptian elements that participated in this attack, whereas some of the injured confirmed that their accents were not Egyptian or Sinai accents indicating there were foreign elements within the terrorists. These elements came from Syria and Libya, indicating that the security procedures increased in the middle of Sinai and all the vital installations.

The source added that the elements that used the weapon today and used TNT are fully trained on the manufacture of explosives and the use of weapons, pointing out that an extensive military operation launched a little while ago with the participation of army and police forces with air cover to the very dangerous terrorist strongholds, pointing out that the terrorist elements have fled to mountain pistols and the search for them is intensified.

The Interior Minister followed the security operations in Sinai Peninsula and asked for an extensive security report on the terrorist operation in Sinai. He also demanded that the terrorist elements be pursued and full pre-emptive strikes be launched against the terrorists, adding that the security forces will directly strike them in the coming hours.