Police and gunmen clashed on Thursday in the Sinai town of El-Arish, Egyptian TV said after the authorities vowed to crush a surge in Islamist militancy, although state news agency MENA denied the report.
The state-owned Nile News television said there were clashes outside a police station in the north Sinai town a day after reported air strikes killed 20 militants in a neighbouring village.
However MENA said later that a “security official denied reports that the… police station in El-Arish came under fire,” in an account backed by witnesses who said they did not see or hear any clashes.
MENA said that a man driving a unlicensed car had fired several shots in the air on the street housing the police station, without aiming at it.
The conflicting reports came a day after security forces launched a campaign to uproot the militants following an attack by gunmen on a guard post near the border with Israel that killed 16 troops.
“Elements from the armed forces and interior ministry supported by the air force began a plan to restore security by pursuing and targeting armed terrorist elements in Sinai, and it has accomplished this task with complete success,” it said. Wednesday’s reported air strikes in Tumah village — the first in the peninsula for decades — came as security forces massed near Rafah on the Gaza border for what they called a decisive confrontation with the militants.
A senior military official in Sinai said “20 terrorists were killed” in Apache helicopter raids and when soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division stormed Tumah. He said the militants were trying to escape when the helicopter targeted their vehicles.
Other security officials in the north of the peninsula reported air strikes near the town of Sheikh Zuwayid, close to the village. The fallout from Sunday’s attack, the deadliest for Egyptian troops in decades, spread to Cairo where President Mohamed Morsi sacked his intelligence chief and two generals.
