Egyptian president meets defense, interior ministers after Sinai airport attack

CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held a meeting on Wednesday with his defense and interior ministers a day after their visit to North Sinai's Arish city during which a terror attack killed an officer, the Egyptian presidential spokesman said in a statement.

On Tuesday, a shell attack against Arish airport killed an officer and wounded two others, causing partial damage to a helicopter during the visit of Defense Minister Sedqi Sobhi and Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar, who returned to Cairo later in the evening.

"During the meeting, the president received a report from the defense and interior ministers on the security conditions of North Sinai and the measures and procedures made to fight terrorism and establish security and stability in that region," presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said.

He noted that the meeting came "in the light of their Tuesday's visit to Arish city to check on the forces and the security conditions there."

The meeting also included the country's chief of staff and the heads of the general intelligence and the military intelligence agencies.

Egypt has been fighting a wave of terror activities that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the military toppled former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 due to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

The terrorist attacks were centered in North Sinai and targeted security forces before they gradually extended to other provinces, including the capital Cairo, and dozens of the Coptic minority with church bombings.

Most of the attacks were claimed by a Sinai-based terrorist group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) group.

On Nov. 24, a terrorist attack against a mosque in a town of Arish city killed at least 310 Muslim worshippers and wounded over 120 others, marking the deadliest terror attack and the first against a Muslim mosque in Egypt's modern history. But no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the mosque attack, President Sisi ordered the army's chief of staff to restore security and stability in the restive part of the Sinai Peninsula within three months.

Over the past few years, the Egyptian security forces have killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested a similar number of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster. Enditem