3K tunnels destroyed in N. Sinai during past period, LE 600B projects established: Army Spox

CAIRO – 4 May 2020: Up to 3000 tunnels have been destroyed in North Sinai during the past period, and several military successes have been archived along with number of developing projects with total of LE 600 billion according to Military Spokesman Tamer Al-Refae.

During a Phone call interview with extra news privet channel, Refae noted to the video that was released on Sunday, which stated that The Egyptian Armed Forces killed 126 “takfiris” (terrorists) in 22 raids and 12 operations carried out by the army and police forces in Central and North Sinai.





The Sunday statement added that the Armed Forces seized a number of weapons and explosive belts, which were possessed by the eliminated terrorists. The army also found and detonate 630 explosive devices that were planted to target the armed forces.

Also, Air Force managed to destroy 228 hideouts that belonged to terrorists and 116 four-wheel drive vehicles.

In his latest statements, Refae affirmed that the Army is doing huge efforts to protect all of the state’s strategic borders and ban terrorists from using it through tunnels to smuggle weapons or other terrorists that would destabilize the country or pose any danger or threat to Egyptians.

“Since 2015, Egypt’s Cabinet approved establishing the Sinai buffer zone at a depth of 5 km to protect the Egyptian security, we’ve been establishing the zone on various stages; as due to the citizens whom have been living there, we were not able to establish it all at once.” Refae said.

He added that establishing the zone took some time in order to relocated the residents to other places after paying compensation to them.

“Several successes have been achieved, and up to 3000 tunnels have been destroyed as some of them were at lengths of 3 kilometers or more, and depth of 30 meters underground” The Spokesperson added.

Refae affirmed that the forces succeeded to destroy the terrorists’ infrastructure in addition to impose its control over this area and to return daily life into normal in North Sinai.

He added that, due to Coronavirus pandemic things have changed especially regarding education; but hopefully this crisis would be ending soon.

“All sacrifices that the Armed forces made did not go down the drain; enormous gains were achieved and massive projects were built with total budget of LE 600 billion in different sectors.” The Spokesperson said.

Regarding the efforts exerted by the Armed Forces on Corona pandemic, Refae explained that the army has sterilized number of vital roads and building along with distributing facial masks in a number of governorates.