Reuters :Egypt’s military launched air strikes and ground operations that killed 25 Islamist militants in North Sinai on Sunday, security sources said, as the country grapples with an increasingly ambitious insurgency based in the region.The Sinai has recently witnessed some of the heaviest fighting between security forces and Islamist militants since the army toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.Security sources said on Sunday troops killed the 25 militants in villages between the towns of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah.The army found four militant hideouts and attacked them with Apache helicopters and ground troops.Islamic State’s Egypt affiliate, recently renamed Sinai Province, has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Mursi’s removal.Though the vast peninsula has long been a security headache for Egypt and its neighbours, the removal of Mursi brought new violence that has grown into an Islamist insurgency that has spread out of the region.On Monday, a car bomb in Cairo killed Egypt’s top prosecutor, the highest-profile official to die since the insurgency began.
