UPDATE: 7 family members killed by rocket attack in Sinai
The source of the missiles was not immediately clear; 3 reported jihadists
killed by army
Ahram Online , Wednesday 19 Nov 2014
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/115878/Egypt/Politics-/UPDATE--family-members-killed-by-rocket-attack-in-.aspx


Seven civilians and three militants have been killed in fighting in the
volatile North Sinai region, an Egyptian security source told Aswat Masriya.

A mortar shell on Tuesday struck a house in the village of Negah Shabana
south of the town of Rafah, killing seven civilians, all from one Bedouin
family.

The source said that the rockets were aimed at a nearby security checkpoint
but missed their target.

The source added three children were among the dead and a woman was injured
by shrapnel.

Shortly after the rocket attack, Apache helicopters shelled a house where
the reported jihadists were hiding, killing three, the source said.

However, a different security source told AFP that it was not immediately
clear if the missiles were fired by army helicopters attacking militants or
mortars fired by militants.

The Sinai Peninsula has been for a decade a haven for an Islamist insurgency
which intensified following the 2013 ouster of president Mohamed Morsi.

The military has mounted an extensive campaign in the region to crush
militant violence which has killed hundreds of police and troops over the
past 16 months. Security forces have announced that they killed hundreds of
militants. The violence has also led to civilian casualties.

Earlier in November, Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, Egypt's deadliest militant group,
swore allegiance to jihadist Islamic State which has seized large
territories of Syria and Iraq in recent months.

In October, Egypt began demolishing houses and clearing residents along its
border with Gaza to set up a buffer zone aimed at deterring militant
infiltration and arms smuggling.

The government's move came on the back of a deadly attack by militants that
killed 30 soldiers on 24 October, in the worst such assaults on security
forces in years.