CAIRO (AA) – Four Egyptian conscripts were killed and five others injured on Thursday by a car bomb that went off in the northern Sinai Peninsula, a security source said.
According to the source, an explosives-laden car detonated at the Rayssa checkpoint in eastern Arish.
Security forces have been put on high alert and the international road to Arish has been closed to traffic, the source added, stopping short of saying whether the casualties were police or army conscripts.
The Rayssa checkpoint has been subject to repeated attacks by unidentified "militants" since the country was engulfed by political unrest following the January 2011 uprising that ended the 30-year rule of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.
No groups or individuals have yet claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack.
Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which shares borders with both Israel and the Gaza Strip, has seen almost daily attacks by unknown gunmen since the July 3 ouster of elected President Mohamed Morsi by the country's powerful military establishment.
The Egyptian army is currently carrying out what military experts are calling the largest military operation on the peninsula since Egypt's 1973 war with Israel with the stated aim of combating "militancy and terrorism."
by Ahmed Gamal
englishnews@aa.com.tr
