Egypt army says it foiled suicide attack on army outpost

Egypt’s military said Wednesday its troops foiled a suicide car bomb attack targeting an army outpost on a highway leading to the canal city of Suez.

The Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State jihadist organization known as the “Sinai Province” claimed the attack on a Twitter account affiliated to the group.

A suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden vehicle attempted to strike the outpost on a highway between Cairo and Suez, the military spokesman said on his Facebook page.

He said the explosives-laden vehicle was destroyed and its driver killed, without giving other details.

Jihadists led by IS have stepped up attacks targeting security forces since the army’s ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Most of their attacks have been in the restive Sinai Peninsula, but deadly attacks have also been carried out in Cairo and other cities.

On Saturday, a car bomb attack struck the Italian consulate in Cairo killing a passer-by and wounding nine others, in the first against a foreign mission since Morsi’s ouster.

That attack came days after a car bomb attack in Cairo killed the country’s top state prosecutor.

On July 1, Islamic militants unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks, including suicide car bombings, on Egyptian army checkpoints in Sinai, killing at least 50 soldiers.

The coordinated morning assaults in Sinai came a day after Egypt’s president pledged to step up the battle against Islamic militants and two days after the country’s state prosecutor was assassinated in the capital, Cairo.

A reporter for Sky News Arabia put the Egyptian army death toll as high as 60.

At least 55 other soldiers were wounded, the officials said. As fighting raged, an army Apache gunship destroyed one of the armored carriers captured by the militants as they were driving it away, the officials added.