2nd LD: Egypt says kill 15 terrorists after attack on security checkpoint

The Egyptian armed forces said in a statement on Friday that it killed 15 terrorists after suspected Jihadists' attack on a checkpoint in North Sinai killed 12 security men.

"A group of militants have attacked in the early morning one of the security checkpoints in North Sinai using four-wheel drives," the army spokesperson, Brigadier General Mohamed Samir said.

"Our forces killed 15 terrorists," Samir added, "The clashes led to the martyrdom of 12 and injury of six armed forces heroes."

The spokesperson reiterated that the searching and combing operations are underway to track more Jihadists.

The attack happened in the central Sinai area, 40 km from the town of Bir al-Abd, an official security source told Xinhua.

This is the first major attack in the central Sinai area as Bir al-Abd has yet been so far from the reach of the violence that has threatened northern Sinai over the past three years.

The source noted that the assailants used rifles and automatic weapons, before fleeing the scene.

The victims have been transferred to El-Arish Hospital.

North Sinai has been experiencing growing waves of anti-security attacks since the army-led ouster of Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi in 2013, which killed hundreds of police and army men.

A Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) regional group claimed responsibility for most of attacks.

Earlier this month, gunmen killed five Egyptian police conscripts in El-Arish.

Intensified Egyptian military raids killed and arrested several hundreds of IS-affiliate extremists in North Sinai as part of the country's "anti-terrorism war" declared following Morsi's ouster. Endit