Four Egyptian soldiers killed amid Sinai offensive

Egypt's army says at least four soldiers have been killed and three others wounded in an ongoing military operation against militants in the Sinai Peninsula.

Col. Tamer Rifa, an army spokesman, said in a statement on Sunday that at least ten militants were also killed and 245 others detained during anti-terror raids in the North Sinai city of Arish.

The spokesman added that warplanes attacked six militant targets in northern and central Sinai and the Nile Delta.

The deaths raise military casualties to at least 16 dead, along with more than 100 militants, since the start of the operation on February 9,

The army launched the campaign after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi gave them a three-month deadline to crush the Takfiri Daesh terrorists in Sinai.

Sisi issued the ultimatum in November after suspected Daesh gunmen massacred hundreds of worshippers in a Sinai mosque associated with Muslim Sufi mystics.

In recent years, militant groups have killed hundreds of soldiers, policemen and civilians in Sinai and elsewhere in Egypt.

SS