Twelve "terrorists" were killed in crossfire with armed forces and 70 others were arrested in an eight-day security campaign in North Sinai, the army spokesman said on Thursday.Eight vehicles, 29 motorbikes, a car maintenance workshop, and 68 headquarters belonging to "terrorist" elements were destroyed in the period from December 3 to December 10, he added.
Security forces also uncovered 25 Russian-made bullets and two bombs, while five other bombs, planted along the routes used by army and police forces, were dismantled.
Militants have stepped up attacks targeting security forces in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, since the army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, which followed mass protests against his rule.
At least 30 military personnel were killed in a suicide blast which targeted a security checkpoint in Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid on October 24, in the worst militant attack since Mursi's ouster.
Egypt's most dangerous militant group, the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video released on November 14, shortly after pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency and a nighttime curfew in parts of the Sinai Peninsula in response to the attack.
