Cairo: Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi Friday cut short a visit to Ethiopia following a spate of coordinated attacks against security facilities in Egypt’s flashpoint Sinai that claimed at least 30 lives, mainly soldiers.
“The President decided to cut short his participation in the African summit meetings after attending the opening session, and return to Cairo to follow the situation,” a presidential statement said.
The Thursday attacks, claimed by the militant Sinai-based group Ansar Bait Al Maqdis, targeted several military and police buildings in Al Arish, a key city of North Sinai, the nearby city of Shaikh Zuwayid and the town of Rafah on the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
Army spokesman Mohammad Samir said the attacks were in response to what he called “the army success in targeting militants”.
The assaults come three months after extremists attacked army outposts in North Sinai, killing at least 30 soldiers. The October attacks prompted Egyptian authorities to impose a dawn-to-dusk curfew in some parts of North Sinai and set up a buffer zone there as part of a heightened military campaign against militants.
Egyptian forces have been the target of a surge of deadly attacks since the army deposed Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in 2013 following enormous street protests against his rule.
The majority of the attacks were claimed by Bait Al Maqdis, which last year pledged allegiance to the radical Daesh group, which controls swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
