4 soldiers, 2 civilians killed in Egypt Sinai attacks

An Egyptian woman and child were killed in a car bomb, and four soldiers died in a separate explosion in the northern Sinai Peninsula, where the military is engaged in a sweeping campaign against jihadists, the army said.

The army said the woman and child were killed in a car bomb in Rafah, on the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

The four soldiers were killed in a bomb attack during clashes with jihadists, also in northern Sinai, a spokesman said in a statement, without giving further details.

On Monday, the military launched a vast offensive against militants affiliated to the extremist Daesh group, which has seized control of swathes of Iraq and Syria.

The army said 232 jihadists had been killed in the operation. It was not possible independently to verify the claim.

The army is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since 2013, when the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
Source: AFP