3 soldiers injured in Islamist attack on Sinai security HQ

Three Egyptian soldiers were injured Sunday in an attack by Islamist terrorists on the government’s security headquarters in Northern Sinai.

The gunmen attacked the base with a barrage of mortar bombs, RPG fire and machine gun fire, security officials told Reuters.

The army began a hunt for the assailants, Israel Radio reported.

Earlier Sunday Egyptian troops in dozens of armored vehicles and supported by attack helicopters targeted armed militants in the northern Sinai village of Sheikh Zuweid, according to reports in the Egyptian paper Al-Youm a-Sabi.’

The militants, armed with heavy weapons, are suspected of having ties to an assault Friday on peacekeeping forces in Sinai, in which dozens of Bedouin gunmen attacked the Multinational Force and Observer’s North Camp headquarters 40 kilometers south of El-Arish, injuring four peacekeepers.

The Friday attack took place amid protests by Muslims across the world against a film widely decried as being offensive to Islam. The Egyptian army has been clashing with gunmen, some with ties to international terror organizations,, ever since terrorists killed 16 Egyptian border troops in an August 5 attack on a base near the Israel-Egypt-Gaza border.