Egyptian Army increases security on borders with Libya and Sudan

The Egyptian Army increased its security measures on borders with Libya and Sudan near Awainat Mountain in the far south-west, to stop any extremists from entering the Egyptian lands through this area.

An Egyptian official told press sources that, this mountain area will be completely secured through advanced technologies and increase in number of soldiers and weapons to control the borders, and any attempts targeting Egypt National Security will be immediately stopped. These security precautions are response to a “Daesh” attack on a bus carrying Christians in Minya desert, south of Egypt hat was heads to St. Samuel monastery, killing at least 29 passengers.

The Egyptian Air Force shelled targets in Derna city, east of Libya, in coordination with Libyan National Army, according to a source in the Libyan Army. The shelling targeted the headquarters of Derna’s  Mujahideen Shura Council in Al-Fata’eh neighborhood, killing number of the council leaders and some elements of “Daesh” organization.

According to the same source, Abel Monem Salem known as “Abu Talha”, a leader at Al-Qaeda organization and high ranked official at Derna Council was killed during the raid, along with 4 of his followers. The Egyptian raid also targeted “Beshr” camp at the west entrance of Derna city, destroying weapons and ammunition. This raid opened the way to the Libyan Army to enter Derna city and control its armed militias.

The Egyptian Army statement said that, the air strikes completely destroyed the targets including a training center for extremists who were involved in Minya terrorist attack.
 
According to security sources, large-scale search raids are being conducted in mountain areas to look for the perpetrators of the Minya incident, adding that, Special Forces for fighting extremism carried out a search raid on mount areas and roads connecting Egypt’s border desert with Libya and Sudan. The extremists are using the mount roads to enter Egypt through Libyan and Sudanese borders, and the Egyptian army used experts in these roads to track them down.

Some Egyptian churches decided to postpone their religious trips in mourning with the victims of Minya accident. While security units in Beni Suef, Fayoum, Minya, Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Luxor and Aswan governorates are increasing their security surveillance for these trips and reinforcing the patrols around the Coptic monasteries, and the roads leading to them.