{"id":2189,"date":"2018-10-17T19:06:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T19:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=2189"},"modified":"2018-10-17T19:06:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T19:06:56","slug":"egypt-says-security-forces-killed-450-fighters-in-sinai-peninsula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2018\/10\/17\/egypt-says-security-forces-killed-450-fighters-in-sinai-peninsula\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt says security forces killed 450 fighters in Sinai peninsula"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Egypt<\/a>\u00a0has said its security forces have killed 450 armed fighters since the beginning of its eight-month offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (<\/span>ISIL<\/a>, otherwise known ISIS) in the\u00a0<\/span>Sinai peninsula<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Army Spokesman Tamer al-Rifai said the large-scale operation, dubbed “Sinai 2018,” has also resulted in the\u00a0dismantling of some 1,200 explosive devices and the destruction of about 1,900 vehicles and motorcycles.<\/p>\n

The military\u00a0launched the operation<\/a>\u00a0in February to rid the arid and sparsely populated area – an attractive region for armed groups waging a war against the government – of ISIL fighters after an\u00a0attack<\/a>\u00a0on a mosque in late 2017 that killed more than 300 people.<\/p>\n

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WATCH:<\/strong>\u00a0The world reacts to mosque bombing in Egypt (1:39)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Al-Rifai said the government had spent $1.38bn to compensate residents forced to relocate from northern Sinai.<\/p>\n

According to army figures, around 30 soldiers have been killed during the operation.<\/p>\n

Armed groups began staging attacks against state security forces after the 2013 overthrow of President\u00a0Mohamed Morsi<\/a>, the country’s first democratically elected president.<\/p>\n

Morsi was forced out by the military in the face of mass protests against his rule.<\/p>\n

The army on Tuesday rejected criticism from rights groups over the impact on civilians of its campaign in Sinai.<\/p>\n

It said that people in the peninsula support its operation and receive humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n

“All air strikes are carried out by the army outside residential areas,” al-Rifai said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Journalists are barred from going to areas targeted in the Sinai 2018 campaign, although the army organised a rare visit to the North Sinai capital El Arish in July.<\/p>\n

A countrywide state of emergency was imposed in April last year, following two suicide bombings at churches which were claimed by ISIL.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, President\u00a0Abdel Fattah el-Sisi<\/a>\u00a0extended the measure by a further three months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Egypt\u00a0has said its security forces have killed 450 armed fighters since the beginning of its eight-month offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, otherwise known ISIS) in the\u00a0Sinai peninsula.\u00a0 Army Spokesman Tamer al-Rifai said the large-scale operation, dubbed “Sinai 2018,” has also resulted in the\u00a0dismantling of some 1,200 explosive devices and the destruction of about 1,900… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2190,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions\/2190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}