ISIS surprise attack in Egypt’s Sinai kills dozens

In this Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012 file photo, army trucks carry Egyptian tanks in a military convoy in El Arish, Egypt’s northern Sinai Peninsula. Islamic militants on Wednesday, July 1, 2015, unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks, including suicide car bombings, on Egyptian army checkpoints in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, killing at least 50 soldiers, security and military officials said. AP

CAIRO, Egypt – Dozens of people were killed Wednesday in a wave of unprecedented attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group on Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula, in a major challenge to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

F-16 warplanes bombarded the militants as they fought security forces on the streets of the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid after striking military checkpoints in a surprise attack after dawn.

Medical and security officials said at least 70 people, mostly soldiers, were killed in the attacks and hours of clashes, along with dozens of jihadists.

The military said 17 soldiers and 100 militants had been killed. It was not immediately possible to explain the discrepancy.

The militants withdrew from Sheikh Zuweid after almost eight hours of fighting, the officials said.

The violence came two days after state prosecutor Hisham Barakat was assassinated in a Cairo car bombing. He was the most senior government official killed in the jihadist insurgency.

In the capital on Wednesday, police killed senior Muslim Brotherhood member Nasser al-Houfi and eight others during a raid on an apartment, security officials and a member of the Islamist movement said.

The Sinai attacks, in which car bombs were used, were the most brazen in their scope since jihadists launched an insurgency in 2013 following the army’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

“It’s unprecedented, in the number of terrorists involved and the type of weapons they are using,” said a senior military official.