‘Jihadist’ attack kills 11 Egypt troops

CAIRO: Eleven Egyptian soldiers were killed on Saturday attempting to thwart a “terrorist” attack on the Suez Canal zone abutting the Sinai peninsula, a hotbed of jihadist activity, the army said.

It was the heaviest loss of life the army had suffered in years in its long-running campaign in and around the Sinai against militants loyal to the Islamic State group.

Five soldiers were also wounded in the firefight on the eastern bank of the canal, the army said, adding security forces were “continuing to chase the terrorists and surround them in an isolated area of the Sinai”. “These terrorist operations will not defeat the determination of the country and the army to continue uprooting terrorism,” President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged on Facebook.