The US has condemned a deadly terrorist attack on the Suez Canal zone abutting Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Eleven Egyptian soldiers were killed and five soldiers were wounded in the firefight on the eastern bank of the canal, the army said, adding security forces were "continuing to chase the terrorists and surround them in an isolated area of the Sinai.”
Washington denounced the "terrorist attack in the Sinai targeting members of the Egyptian military" and expressed its condolences to the victims' families.
"For decades, the United States has been and remains Egypt's strong partner in confronting terrorism in the region," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
