CAIRO
At least 18 soldiers were injured on Sunday by a roadside bomb in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, according to statements by the Interior Ministry.
A roadside bomb went off as a bus carrying security personnel passed through the city of Arish in the North Sinai province, the ministry said in a statement issued Sunday afternoon.
The statement added that police personnel had sustained light injuries due to flying glass caused by the blast.
Sunday’s attack was claimed by the “Province of Sinai,” an anti-government group active in northern Sinai said to be linked to the Daesh militant group.
Speaking via Twitter, the group alleged that 18 policemen had been killed in Sunday’s attack.
Since mid-2013, when Mohamed Morsi – Egypt’s first democratically elected president – was ousted by the military, northern Sinai has become the epicenter of a deadly insurgency that has largely targeted Egyptian security personnel.
In the more than two years since Morsi’s overthrow, Egyptian security forces have waged a fierce campaign against militants in the volatile peninsula, which shares borders with both Israel and the blockaded Gaza Strip.
