Egypt says 10 soldiers killed during Sinai raid

CAIRO — Ten Egyptian soldiers and 15 militants were killed during a raid on an Islamist insurgent base in the restive Sinai Peninsula, a military spokesman said Thursday.

The deaths underscored the strength of the Sinai insurgency, led by an Islamic State affiliate, despite almost four years of concerted Egyptian counterterrorism operations. In recent months Sinai militants have expanded their area of operations, targeted Christian civilians and fired rockets into Israel.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Tamer elRefai, an Egyptian military spokesman, said the Egyptian soldiers died in two roadside blasts Wednesday during an operation that had targeted two Islamist storehouses in the deserts of central Sinai, outside their stronghold in the north of the peninsula.

Among the soldiers killed were three officers and seven enlisted men, elRefai said.

Seven militants were arrested, he said, and explosives, cellphones and four-wheel-drive vehicles were seized.

The death totals and other details from the operation could not be independently corroborated as most journalists, Egyptian or foreign, are prohibited from working in Sinai.

The raid came a month after a series of attacks by militants targeting minority Christians in northern Sinai forced more than 250 people to flee, mostly to the city of Ismailia.