"They were shooting at people as they left the mosque," said a local resident whose relatives were at the scene. Striking at a mosque would be a change in tactics for the Sinai militants, who have usually attacked troops and police and Christian churches. Sinai struggleNorth Sinai, which stretches from the Suez Canal eastwards to the Gaza Strip and Israel, has long been a security headache for Egyptian security forces because of smuggling. Islamic State earlier this year posted a video of the beheading of two Sufis in northern Sinai, accusing them of practising "sorcery". In July this year, at least 23 soldiers were killed when suicide car bombs hit two military checkpoints in the Sinai, in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

Source: bd News24 November 24, 2017 13:07 UTC