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11:43, 27-Dec-2017
Egypt executes 15 over Sinai attacks on security forces
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Egypt on Tuesday executed 15 men for attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula. Reports claimed it was the country’s largest number of executions in a single day since at least 2015.
The hangings took place at two prisons in the north of the country early on Tuesday, sources said.
A military court issued the sentences and interior ministry officials carried out the executions simultaneously at Borj al-Arab and Wadi al-Natroun prisons, the sources added.
Most of the militants were from the Sinai region and were accused of "joining militant groups and taking part in carrying out, planning and assisting in killing a number of army and police personnel in Sinai," the sources said.
People hold candles in memory of victims of the attack in north Sinai in front of the Press Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt, November 27, 2017. /VCG Photo
People hold candles in memory of victims of the attack in north Sinai in front of the Press Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt, November 27, 2017. /VCG Photo
The hangings come a week after ISIL attacked a helicopter with an anti-tank missile at a North Sinai airport as Egypt’s defense and interior ministers were visiting.
The ministers were unhurt in the attack but an aide to the defense minister was killed along with a pilot.
ISIL's Egypt affiliate has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers in a years-long insurgency in the Sinai, and in the past year expanded targets to include Christians and other civilians.
An attack on a mosque last month which killed more than 300 people, the deadliest in Egypt's modern history, was widely attributed to ISIL, but the group did not claim responsibility for it.
In 2015, six people were executed for killing two soldiers during a raid in Qalyubiah province, north of Cairo.
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Source(s): AFP
,Reuters