Car bomb kills seven civilians in north Sinai

Seven people, including two children, were killed after a car bomb exploded near a military checkpoint close to the city of Arish in the Sinai Peninsula.

“The explosion was very big, which indicates that the vehicle was carrying around 100 kilograms of explosive material,” the Egyptian army said on Monday.

“Three men, two women and two children were killed. The booby-trapped vehicle was targeting the checkpoint when it was intercepted by an army tank whose driver ran over the car in an attempt to contain the blast.”

Civilian cars and commercial lorries were lined up to go through the checkpoint when the attack took place.

The military said that if the gunmen had been able to reach their target, up to 60 soldiers and civilians would have been killed.

The 4x4 vehicle, with four armed men inside, exploded after the tank drove away. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Egyptian army has been fighting a local ISIL affiliate in northern Sinai where hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed.

ISIL has targeted Christians, who make up around 10 per cent of the population, in various parts the country, killing dozens.

The militants have repeatedly said that they intend to carry out more attacks on Christians.

They have also targeted the Egyptian police and armed forces.

In 2015, ISIL bombed a Russian airliner carrying passengers from a South Sinai resort of Sharm El Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board and severely damaging Egypt’s tourism.

An insurgency in the Sinai region has gained pace since the removal of president Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood after mass protests against his rule in mid-2013.

Yesterday an Egyptian criminal court sentenced 43 activists to life in prison after a retrial of anti-government protesters who clashed with authorities in December 2011.

Forty-three people were charged with rioting, vandalism and attacking security forces in Cairo, where 17 people were killed and almost 2,000 were wounded.

They were also fined a total of more than 17 million Egyptian pounds (Dh3.5m) for vandalising public property.