Egypt suicide bombing kills 6 troops in Sinai

Updated at 7:36 a.m. Eastern

EL-ARISH, Egypt At pair of suicide bombers rammed explosives-laden cars into military targets in a border town in Egypt's volatile Sinai on Wednesday, killing at least six soldiers and wounding 17 people, a military spokesman said.

Col. Ahmed Ali said in a statement posted on his Facebook page that "terrorist elements" and "criminals" launched the attack involving two cars loaded with explosives. He said six military personnel were killed and 10 soldiers and seven civilians were wounded in the attack.

The attack in the town of Rafah nudged the violence in the strategic Sinai Peninsula closer to a full-blown insurgency, compounding Egypt's woes at a time when the country is struggling to regain political stability and economic viability more than two years since longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising.

Wednesday's attack on the intelligence building in Rafah collapsed the entire structure and buried an unspecified number of troops under the rubble, two security officials told the Associated Press. The second attack targeted an armored personnel carrier deployed as part of an army checkpoint not far from the intelligence headquarters, the officials added. The officials said the remains of the two suicide bombers had been recovered.

Militants in Sinai, some with links to al Qaeda, have been targeting for months Egyptian forces in the strategic peninsula bordering Gaza and Israel. Their attacks have become much more frequent and deadlier since the ouster this summer of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's Islamist president. After Mubarak's ouster, Morsi became the country's first democratically elected president in 2012 but he was deposed in July by the military after days of massive street protests against him.

Wednesday's suicide attack is the second to hit Egypt since Mori's ouster.

On Monday, a jihadi group based in Sinai claimed responsibility for an attack on Egypt's interior minister in Cairo last week. Ansar Bayt al Maqdes had previously only attacked targets in Sinai and Israel. The Sept. 5 attack in central Cairo was Egypt's first suicide bombing and a worrying departure from the groups normal targets.

Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim narrowly escaped the assassination attempt, when a suspected car bomb tore through his convoy, wounding 22 people and leaving a major Cairo boulevard strewn with debris.

Earlier this week, the Egyptian military launched a major offensive against the militants in the northern region of Sinai.

Officials have described the offensive, which started on Saturday, as the biggest sweep of the area in recent years, aiming to weed out al Qaeda-inspired groups that have taken control of villages in northern Sinai.

Five days of military operations so far have left 29 Islamic militants dead and the military has boasted of capturing weapons caches, missile launchers, and dozens of vehicles and fuel storage sites. Some 30 militants were arrested during raids — mostly low-level operatives.

One officer and two soldiers have also been killed in the operation since Saturday.

On Monday, Egypt's state news agency MENA cited unnamed senior security officials as saying at least six militant groups with an estimated 5,000 members operate in Sinai. The militants use mountains in north and central Sinai as hideouts, where the rugged terrain is difficult to search.

But the repeated security operations have increased tension with local residents, who accuse authorities of randomly targeting homes and arresting innocent people.