Five truck drivers were killed on Thursday after a number of militants opened fire against them while they were passing al-Hasna-Baghdad road at a checkpoint located in Central Sinai, a North Sinai-based journalist told Egypt Independent on Friday.<\/p>\n
The militants, who are believed to be members of the Islamic State\u2019s Egyptian branch the \u2018Sinai Province\u2019 set up the checkpoint on the road between villages of the al-Hasna-Baghdad where the five drivers were passing with trucks that were transferring oil, he added.<\/p>\n
The drivers were first forced to step out of their trucks as the militants accused them of transporting logistic material to army bases in North Sinai, the journalist said, adding that the militants planned to burn the vehicles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe five drivers strongly refused and resisted the militants\u2019 trials to burn the trucks. This action was met by a violent reaction from the militants who directly opened fire against the drivers\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
The checkpoint made by the militants consisted of iron barriers and burning tires, he noted.<\/p>\n
Other drivers who were following the five vehicles decided to return to Egypt\u2019s delta governorate of Dakahlia from where they came.<\/p>\n
Four of the killed drivers were identified after their bodies arrived to hospitals in North Sinai. Their names are Khalid Samy, Soliman Abdel Mawali,Atef Mohamed, Mohamed Fada.<\/p>\n
Since 2014, the Egyptian Armed Forces have engaged in military confrontations with militants of the IS-affiliated group \u2018Sinai Province\u2019, which has launched numerous attacks on army and police stationing points in al-Arish, Sheikh Zewaid and Rafah.<\/p>\n
In response to recent attacks, the Egyptian Armed Forces launched a wide-scale military campaign combating \u2018Sinai Province\u2019, which has successfully eliminated a number of militants \u2014 including the group\u2019s former leader Abu Doaa al-Ansary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five truck drivers were killed on Thursday after a number of militants opened fire against them while they were passing al-Hasna-Baghdad road at a checkpoint located in Central Sinai, a North Sinai-based journalist told Egypt Independent on Friday. The militants, who are believed to be members of the Islamic State\u2019s Egyptian branch the \u2018Sinai Province\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":51750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7863],"tags":[26417,26415,26416,15675],"class_list":["post-51749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-section","tag-al-hasna-baghdad","tag-central-sinai","tag-dakahlia","tag-is-militants"],"yoast_head":"\n