Sunday, August 5, 2012

Security officials: 15 Egyptian officers killed in Sinai attack

Security officials:
Published today (updated) 05/08/2012 22:20
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- At least 15 Egyptian police officers were killed on Sunday evening in an attack on a barracks in Sinai near the Israeli border, security officials said.

Masked attackers carrying machine guns fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the post near Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing, killing at least 15 Egyptian officers and kidnapping others, Egyptian security officials told Ma'an.

Egyptian state television reported that an Islamist militant group was behind the attack.

Security sources told Reuters that the attackers used a stolen police vehicle to launch the attack and fired live ammunition at police officers at the station.

An Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an that one of the vehicles used in the attack crossed into Israel and was hit by Israeli forces. He declined to elaborate.

Israel's army spokeswoman Avital Leibovich wrote on her Twitter page that Israel targeted the vehicle from the air. She wrote that another vehicle exploded at the Kerem Shalom border crossing but that no Israelis had been killed.

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