The Sinai Tribes Union, an amalgamation of tribes cooperating with Egyptian security authorities in northern Sinai, announced that three “prominent” terrorist elements were killed on Monday.
The Union identified in a statement one of the terrorists as Shaaban Abu Draa, a military emir, noting that six of its members were killed during the operation.
The army and police forces have been carrying out a major security operation in North and Central Sinai since February 2018 to purge the area from members of the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group, which changed its name to Sinai Province after pledging allegiance to ISIS in 2014.
According to observers and security experts, the pace of terrorist attacks against security forces in Sinai has recently decreased, thanks to the pre-emptive raids on the locations of terrorist elements.
These developments come a day after the country celebrated the Sinai Liberation Day, during which Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi affirmed that reconstructing the peninsula is key to defend it.
The cabinet’s Media Center said the country has “put the Sinai Peninsula on the path of real development and proceeded to launch giant national projects in various sectors.”
The development plan includes investments amounting to more than 700 billion Egyptian pounds and are set to be implemented within an eight-year period.
