ISMAILIA, (Reuters) – Two attacks in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula killed 33 security personnel on Friday, security sources said, in some of the worst anti-state violence since Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was overthrown last year.
The violence prompted Egypt to declare a three-month state of emergency in parts of North Sinai, where the violence took place, the state news agency reported.
The attacks are a setback for the government, which had managed over the past few months to make some progress in the struggle against an Islamist militant insurgency in the Sinai as it focuses on trying to repair the economy.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has also expressed serious concerns over militants who are thriving in the chaos of post-Gaddafi Libya and are opposed to the Cairo government.
Egypt has offered to train anti-militant, pro-government Libyan forces while it tries to contain the Sinai insurgency. Security officials say Egyptian warplanes flown by Libyan pilots recently bombed militant targets in Libya.
Thirty people were killed in the first attack in the al-Kharouba area northwest of al-Arish, near the Gaza Strip, the sources said.
Military helicopters transferred the dead and wounded to Cairo. Among them were several senior officers from the Second Field Army based in Ismailia, security sources said.
