Car bomb kills 17 soldiers in Egypt's Sinai

A car bomb killed 17 Egyptian soldiers and wounded 22 in an attack by suspected jihadists on an army checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula Friday, a security official said.

The sources, revising an earlier toll of 10 killed and 27 wounded, said the attack took place near El-Arish, the main town in the restive north Sinai.

Jihadists in the Sinai have killed scores of policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year.

Friday's attack was the deadliest against security forces in weeks, and most of those wounded were in serious condition.

"Most of the wounded have been seriously injured and not all of them have been taken to hospital yet," health ministry official Tareq Khater told AFP.

On Wednesday, a bomb exploded outside Cairo University, wounding nine six policemen and three pedestrians. The explosion occurred near the site of a bombing in April that killed a police general.

Last Sunday, a roadside bomb exploded near an armoured vehicle guarding a gas pipeline in north Sinai, killing seven soldiers.

In September, militants killed 17 policemen in Sinai in two bombings and later released footage of the attacks.

Those bombings were claimed by Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the most active militant group in Egypt. It tried to assassinate the interior minister in Cairo last year with a car bomb.

The group has expressed support for Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in Iraq and Syria, although it has not formally pledged its allegiance.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who overthrew Morsi and later won elections, has pledged to eradicate the militants.

The military has said it killed at least 22 militants in October, including an Ansar Beit al-Maqdis commander.

The group itself has acknowledged the arrest or deaths of militants, but the army has been unable so far to crush them despite a massive operation in which it has deployed attack helicopters and tanks.

The militants sometimes operate openly in north Sinai, setting up impromptu checkpoints and handing out leaflets.

They say they target policemen and soldiers to avenge a bloody police crackdown on Islamists after Morsi's overthrow that killed hundreds in street clashes and imprisoned thousands more.

The latest bombing came after an Egyptian military court sentenced to death seven members of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis Tuesday for carrying out deadly attacks on the army.

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