October 2016 Sinai attacks | |
---|---|
Part of the Sinai insurgency | |
Location | Bir al-Abed, North Sinai, Egypt |
Date | 14 October 2016 |
Target | Soldiers of the Egyptian Armed Forces |
Attack type | Bomb attack, shooting |
Weapons | Mortar rounds, rockets and assault rifles |
Deaths | 12 |
Injured | 8 |
Perpetrators | Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
|
The October 2016 Sinai attacks was a terrorist attack on an Egyptian army checkpoint in the city of Bir al-Abed, Egypt (located 40 kilometers west of Al-Arish), on 14 October 2016. A group of militants armed with assault rifles and heavier weapons attacked an Egyptian army checkpoint while mortar rounds and rockets were fired directed to a military checkpoint. In response, the Egyptian military forces killed around 15 militants following the attack. The Islamic State's Wilayat Sinai branch claimed responsibility in a statement released later the same day.[1][2][3]
According to Al Jazeera, Bir al-Abed had been largely spared the violence that had rocked northern Sinai by insurgents following the ouster of Morsi 3 years ago.[2] The attack came weeks after Egypt marks its first anniversary of the Metrojet Flight 9268 crash over the Sinai Peninsula on October 31, 2015.