Reuters, Ismailia :Gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked several military checkpoints in Egypt’s Sinai on Thursday, killing 15 soldiers and two civilians, security sources said, defying one of the toughest security crackdowns in the country’s history.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but militants who support Islamic State, the ultra-hardline group that controls parts of Iraq and Syria, have carried out similar operations in the Sinai Peninsula.Egypt is gradually recovering from years of political turmoil following the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and foreign investors are starting to return. But the biggest Arab state still faces security challenges on several fronts.That insurgency has spread to other parts of Egypt though bombing attacks in cities and towns are usually far less dramatic
