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 After a day of fighting, which involved F-16 jets and Apache
helicopters, the army said it would not stop its operations until it
had cleared the area of all "terrorist concentrations".
By late Wednesday, an army spokesman said the situation in North
Sinai was "100 percent under control". Security sources and
witnesses later said aerial bombardments on militant targets had
resumed.
Islamic State's Egyptian affiliate, Sinai Province, had claimed
responsibility, saying it attacked more than 15 security sites and
carried out three suicide bombings.
The militants' assault, a significant escalation in violence in the
peninsula that lies between Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez
Canal, was the second high-profile attack in Egypt this week. On
Monday, a bomb killed the prosecutor-general in Cairo.
It raised questions about the government's ability to contain an
insurgency that has already killed hundreds of police and soldiers.
 The insurgents want to topple the Cairo government and have stepped
up their campaign since 2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
removed President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood after mass
protests against his rule. Sisi, who regards the Brotherhood as a threat to national security,
has since overseen a harsh crackdown on Islamists.
An army statement said the fighting had been concentrated in the
towns of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah and that the militants used car
bombs and various weapons.
Of the 17 soldiers killed, four were officers, and 13 more soldiers
were wounded, the statement said.
Some security sources put the death toll for army and police much
higher.
The army spokesman told state television that a number of militants
had been arrested. He also posted pictures on his official Facebook
page which he said showed the bodies of scores of militants. They
were dressed in fatigues.
Security sources said the militants had planned to lay siege to the
town of Sheikh Zuweid. "But we have dealt with them and broke the
siege," one of the sources said.
BOOBY TRAPS AT SHEIKH ZUWEID
Earlier, security sources said militants had surrounded a police
station in Sheikh Zuweid and planted bombs around it.
The militants also planted bombs along a road between Sheikh Zuweid
and al-Zuhour army camp and seized two armored vehicles, weapons and
ammunition, the sources said.
Suleiman al-Sayed, a 49-year-old Sheikh Zuweid resident told Reuters
earlier on Wednesday that he was not allowed to leave his home while
clashes were ongoing. He said he had glimpsed "five Land Cruisers
with masked gunmen waving black flags."
Witnesses and security sources also heard two explosions in the
nearby town of Rafah, which borders Gaza. The sources said all roads
leading to Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid were shut down. The interior
ministry in the Gaza Strip, run by the Islamist Hamas group,
reinforced its forces along the border with Egypt.
"It is a sharp reminder that despite the intensive counter-terrorism
military campaign in the Sinai over the past six months, IS ranks
are not decreasing - if anything they are increasing in numbers as
well as sophistication, training and daring," Aimen Dean, a former
al Qaeda insider who now runs a Gulf-based security consultancy,
said in a note.
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STATE OF EMERGENCY
Islamic State had urged its followers to escalate attacks during the
Islamic holy month of Ramadan which started in mid-June, though it
did not specify Egypt as a target. In April, the army extended by
three months a state of emergency imposed in parts of Sinai.
Besides bombardments in the region, the army has destroyed tunnels
into the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip and created a security buffer
zone in northern Sinai. It is also digging a trench along the border
with Gaza to deter smuggling.
Under the terms of Egypt's 1979 peace accord with Israel, the Sinai
is largely demilitarized. But Israel has regularly agreed to Egypt
bringing in reinforcements to tackle the Sinai insurgency, and one
Israeli official signaled there could be further such deployments
following Wednesday's attacks.
"This incident is a game-changer," an official told Reuters on
condition of anonymity.
Sisi's government does not distinguish between the now-outlawed
Brotherhood, which says it is committed to peaceful activism, and
other militants.
The courts have sentenced hundreds of alleged Brotherhood supporters
to death in recent months. Mursi himself, and other senior
Brotherhood figures, also face the death penalty.
The cabinet, which met in the Police Academy for security reasons on
Wednesday, approved a draft anti-terrorism law, which it said would
"achieve quick and just deterrence".
"Any terrorist or criminal attacks that aim to sow chaos ... will be
confronted," the cabinet said, citing the interior minister.
In Cairo, the interior ministry said security forces killed nine
leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood in an apartment in a
western suburb after the men opened fire on them.
The interior ministry said the group were holding a meeting to plot
attacks. It said some of those killed had been convicted in court
cases. The Brotherhood denied the group was armed and said in a
statement the killing was a turning point that could lead to
repercussions by the "oppressed".
"The assassination ... will drive the situation down an extremely
dangerous slope and toward a total explosion."
(Additional reporting by Mahmoud Mourad, Ahmed Tolba and Ali Abelaty
in Cairo, Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza;
Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Ruth Pitchford and Tom Brown)
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