Egyptian security forces have killed 11 suspected militants in a gun battle
during a raid on their hideout in Al-Arish, the capital of North Sinai
province.
The ministry of interior in a
statement said the suspects used their hideout as a base to launch “hostile
operations” as weapons and explosives were found at the scene.
The suspects were killed in a firefight, the ministry said without
elaborating on their identity or whether there had been casualties among the
security forces.
Egypt has long been fighting Islamist militants, who have waged an
insurgency that has killed hundreds of soldiers, police and residents, in the
northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
An investigation in April found that Egyptian security forces had shot dead
hundreds of suspected militants in what the Interior Ministry said were gun
battles, but which bereaved families said were extrajudicial executions.
Human rights organisations have accused Egypt of carrying out extrajudicial
executions and of trying civilians in military courts as part of the crackdown.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said the matter of human rights should
be treated in the context of regional turbulence and the struggle against
terrorism.
Strong security measures, he has said, are needed to stabilise Egypt after
the turmoil that followed the country’s 2011 uprising.