Dozens reportedly killed in Egypt mosque attack

Last Updated Nov 24, 2017 7:23 AM EST

EL-ARISH, Egypt -- Egyptian security officials said Friday that militants had attacked a mosque in the volatile Sinai Peninsula, leaving dozens of casualties.

Three police officers said the extremists attacked the al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, 25 miles from the North Sinai provincial capital of el-Arish.

Egyptian state news agency MENA reports that 85 people have been killed in the bombing and shooting attack, in what appeared to be the latest attack by the area's local Islamic State affiliate. Citing official sources, MENA said 80 people were also wounded in the attack.

The police officers told the Associated Press that men in four off-road vehicles opened fire on worshipers during Friday prayers.

Victims were being transferred to local hospitals, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief reporters.

In September, ISIS militants ambushed a police convoy in Sinai, killing 18 police and wounding seven others in one of the deadliest attacks this year in the restive region bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip.

The ongoing violence in Sinai shows the resilience of the militants there in the face of a years-long campaign to eradicate them by the military and police, which between them command far superior firepower, air support, heavy armor and larger numbers.

The attack also suggested that the militants remain capable of carefully planning elaborate and multi-tiered attacks, making full use of the weapons available to them and their knowledge of the local terrain. In a wider context, the militants have been seeking to demoralize troops using snipers, killing at least 14 policemen and soldiers in recent weeks.

They have also been increasingly using brutal methods to discourage civilians from cooperating with the security forces, kidnapping alleged collaborators and later dumping their decapitated bodies on the streets to terrorize the population.

Egypt's security forces, meanwhile, have succeeded in confining the insurgency to northern Sinai -- a remote northeastern corner of the country -- and preventing the militants from seizing and holding territory there.

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