Two soldiers were killed by unknown assailants in Egypt's northern Sinai, the head of the province's criminal investigative division said today.
Brigadier General Mohamed Saeed said by phone that eyewitnesses reported that the attackers escaped without injury after opening fire with machine guns at the entrance of a town near Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip.
The Sinai Peninsula has grown increasingly lawless since Hosni Mubarak's ouster last year. Militants inspired by al-Qaida are said to be operating in the region and bedouins have kidnapped foreign tourists as leverage in securing the release of family members detained by authorities.
Egyptian security forces have also intercepted several shipments of weapons, including rockets that were reportedly smuggled in from Libya and destined for Sinai and possibly the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tarek El-Tablawy in Cairo at teltablawy@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
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