Egyptian helicopters strike militants in Sinai

[jakeXT]

Source: Miami Herald, Associated Press

Egyptian helicopters strike militants in Sinai


EL-ARISH, Egypt -- Egyptian helicopter gunships fired rockets early Tuesday at militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula, causing "dozens" of casualties in an ongoing effort by authorities to assert control over the largely lawless region, security officials said.

Egyptian government troops have stepped up their crackdown on militants in the peninsula bordering Gaza and Israel, arresting suspects and destroying tunnels along the Gaza border used for smuggling weapons and people. Attacks by Islamic militants surged in the lawless Sinai after the toppling of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi in a July 3 coup.

Security officials said military helicopters targeted multiple locations along the borders with Gaza and in northern Sinai, apparently going after hideouts of suspected militants and weapons caches.

One official said the helicopter attacks surprised militant gatherings in three houses in al-Muqataa and Touma near the border with the Gaza Strip.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/03/3602699/egyptian-helicopters-strike-militants.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. AFP link here

Egyptian military helicopters on Tuesday launched air strikes on militants in the country's restive Sinai peninsula, where the army has been battling a semi-insurgency, security sources and witnesses said.

A security source told AFP the operation was the "biggest aerial assault of its kind in Sinai," where clashes between extremist militants and army and police personnel have risen since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military on July 3.

Witnesses said "Apache helicopters" bombed several villages south of Rafah border crossing with the Palestinian Gaza Strip when the operation began at around 9:00 am (0700 GMT).

They said the helicopters hit several houses where militants had been hiding, and that the attacks had caused casualties.

http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-choppers-biggest-strike-sinai-militants-091813792.html

See Reuters ticker too : Breaking News: Fifteen militants killed in rocket attack in Egypt's Sinai: state TV http://www.reuters.com/news/world

Miami Herald isn't a safe news source - Its American.

[Kolesar]

2. Miami Herald/Knight-Ridder were the papers who were "WMD skeptics"

...in writing by Warren Strobel and John Landay.
Note that "Wall Street" called for breaking up and selling the KR papers during the "hard times" of the Bush administration.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Rocket attack kills 15 militants in Sinai: Egyptian state TV

(Reuters) - Fifteen militants were killed in the Sinai Peninsula by rocket fire, Egyptian state TV reported on Tuesday, after witnesses said army helicopters had attacked militant strongholds in the area.

The state-run Nile TV gave no further details in a brief report. The army helicopters had targeted two villages south of Sheikh Zuweid, a town near the border with Israel and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

An army source said a ground operation was under way with air cover, but declined to give further details because it was still continuing.

Security sources said government helicopter strikes had killed at least eight armed men and wounded 15, and had been aimed at stores of arms and explosives in the Sinai.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/03/us-egypt-protests-sinai-idUSBRE9820F820130903

[kelliekat44]

4. The military is killing anyone they want to by calling them "militants." Shameful

that no one is paying attention to what the Egyptian military is doing while we are all focused on Syria. The Egyptian military is as barbaric as those they oppose..maybe even more barbaric.

[cstanleytech]

5. Really? Are they worse than say the Taliban at the height of its power was?

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. A more apt comparison would be with the Muslim Brotherhood...

and yes, the military has proven far more bloodthirsty than the Brothers. I'm not talking about this little action, but about the massacres in Cairo.

[cstanleytech]

7. Mmmm and if there was a scale who was worse then the Muslim Brotherhood or the Taliban?