Egyptian forces have captured six militants suspected of involvement in a deadly border crossing attack earlier this week, a source in the Sinai Peninsula military command told Egyptian journalists on Monday.
“Six militants suspected of attacking the checkpoint [on the Gaza Strip border] were arrested during an anti-terrorist organization in the northern Sinai Peninsula,” the source said.
He added that the suspected attackers were being held in a desert area between the provincial capital El-Arish, roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the Gaza border, and the Rafah border crossing.
Egypt launched a massive anti-terrorist operation in the north of the Sinai Peninsula on Monday. The operation, the first in decades, was launched the day after the attack on the Karem Abu Salem border crossing which left 16 Egyptian border guards dead. Hostilities intensified on Wednesday, when Egypt fired missiles at suspected militants.
Egypt has shut down its border crossing with the Gaza Strip as it hunts the remaining gunmen.
As part of the security operation, Bedouin tribal leaders have agreed to the Interior Ministry’s proposal to destroy smuggling tunnels to the Gaza Strip, a ministry spokesman said.
“Those underground passages are the reason for all the Sinai troubles, they only create security problems for Egypt,” a leader of the al-Rishat tribe told Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal al-Din during a closed meeting with tribal leaders.
Bedouins will also assist regular troops in the anti-terrorist efforts by providing information about possible militant hideouts and serving as guides in remote mountainous areas.
Tribal leaders, in return, demanded to see the bodies of the militants reportedly killed during the operation. On Thursday, Egypt said about 40 militants had been killed in the operation.
“We demanded that they present us the bodies, just one or two bodies, so we can be convinced,” Al Arabiya quoted Eid Abu Marzuka, one of the Bedouin who took part in the meeting.
Thousands of tunnels on the border between Egypt and Gaza are used to smuggle goods into the enclave bypassing the Israeli blockade. However, the tunnels are also used by members of extremist groups who cross into Egypt in order to attack targets in Israel near the Israeli-Egyptian border on the Sinai Peninsula.
There has been an increase in violence on the peninsula since a popular uprising toppled former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last year. One of the checkpoints involved in Wednesday's clashes has been attacked 28 times since the 2011 uprising.
