Jihadists kill five soldiers in Egypt’s Sinai: army

The army was ambushed in the Sinai peninsula early Wednesday, killing five Egyptian soldiers and seven terrorists, the military claimed, the second such fatal jihadist attack in days.

Jihadist fighters attacked at early, according to an army spokeswoman.

“One officer and four soldiers were killed and two other soldiers were wounded,” the statement read, adding that seven jihadists were killed.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s attack.

But it came four days after an ambush on the Sinai Peninsula claimed by the Islamic State group killed 11 Egyptian soldiers, the military’s highest loss of life in years.

The military said Saturday’s “terrorist” attack was against a water pumping station.

IS claimed responsibility the following day, announcing on its Amaq propaganda site to have seized the weapons of soldiers it killed and to have torched a military post.

An armed insurgency has gripped Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula for more than a decade, peaking with the removal of late Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

Official data show that over a thousand suspected militants and dozens of security personnel have been killed since the operation began.