Militants strike Egypt's Sinai, kill 15 troops, 3 civilians
CAIRO - Islamic militants unleashed a wave of attacks in Egypt's northern Sinai on Thursday, hitting a military checkpoint and killing 15 soldiers and wounding at least 19 there while near-simultaneous attacks elsewhere in the volatile stretch of the peninsula left three civilians dead, officials said.
In four other attacks, also near the same town, three civilians were killed and 13 were wounded. The other attacks appeared to have been aimed at diverting attention from the main assault on the checkpoint, they said.
The military's casualty toll could be higher, however, since the attackers also seized two armored vehicles at the checkpoint, possibly taking hostage an unknown number of soldiers inside the vehicles. Later, a helicopter gunship caught up with the two vehicles, rocketing one of them. The vehicle was destroyed and everyone inside it was killed, but the second one got away, the officials said.
The attackers, however, failed to capture a US-made Abrams tank because its crew drove it to another army checkpoint as the attack was underway, they said.
