16 militants killed, dozens arrested in Sinai offensive

CAIRO — Egypt’s military has destroyed dozens of targets, killed 16 militants and detained more than 30 suspects as part of its latest operation against Islamic militants in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, the army said Sunday.

Spokesman Col. Tamer el-Rifai said air strikes hit vehicles, weapons caches, communications centers and illegal opium fields in the sweep, which began Friday and comes as a response to an increase in extremist violence in Egypt.

“The air force targeted and destroyed 66 targets used by terrorist elements to hide from air and artillery attacks,” for shelter during raids by security forces, he said in a statement. With North Sinai closed off for non-residents and journalists, the army’s casualty figures could not be independently confirmed. Telephone connections to the area, both mobile and landlines, are often shut down as well.

The operation, which targets “terrorist and criminal elements and organizations,” involves land, naval and air forces from the army and police, and covers north and central Sinai, the Nile Delta and the Western Desert along the porous border with Libya.

The offensive comes ahead of a March vote that will undoubtedly see President AbdelFattah el-Sissi win a second four-year term, after all serious opponents have been sidelined or driven out of the race.

El-Sissi, who has waged one of the most sweeping crackdowns on dissent in Egypt’s modern history, says he is the only one who can restore Egypt’s security.

In November, extremists killed 311 worshipers in a mosque attack in north Sinai, prompting el-Sissi to give security forces a three-month deadline to restore order using “all brute force” required.

Militants launched another brazen attack in December, firing a missile at a helicopter that was part of the entourage of Egypt’s defense and interior ministers, who were in the provincial capital el-Arish on an unannounced visit. The missile killed an officer and wounded two others.

Militancy has long been a problem in Sinai, but it spiked dramatically after el-Sissi led the military’s 2013 overthrow of elected but divisive Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Violence has been concentrated in north Sinai, but has also spread to the mainland.