Egypt security forces kill 22 Takfiri militants

Egyptian security forces have reportedly killed 22 Takfiri militants in the North Sinai Governorate in the country’s northeast.

According to Egypt’s Al-Youm Al-Sabe'a daily, the militants were killed in the Sheikh Zuweid district of the governorate.

Brigadier General Mohamed Samir Abdel Aziz Ghonim, the spokesperson of the Egyptian Armed Forces, said the militants had gathering points in three areas, which were destroyed by the security forces.

Earlier in the month, a report likewise said that Egyptian security forces had carried out separate operations in the violence-plagued Sinai Peninsula, and killed at least 22 Takfiri militants.

On May 26, an Egyptian judicial official said that a court in the country had sentenced to death eight Takfiri militants for violence against the security forces and membership in groups that incite terrorism.

Gunmen have intensified terrorist attacks in Sinai ever since Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was toppled in a military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the country's current president and the then army commander, in July 2013.

A state of emergency has been declared in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula since a militant attack on an Egyptian army checkpoint killed more than 30 soldiers in October.

Residents living along the border between northern Sinai and the besieged Gaza Strip have been ordered to relocate. The Egyptian army is also razing over 800 houses in Rafah bordering Gaza to create a wider buffer zone with the Gaza.

The Palestinian movement of Hamas that controls Gaza has denied reports of cross-bordering by militants.

The Egyptian military considers the Sinai Peninsula a safe haven for gunmen, who use the region as a base for their “acts of terror.”