Cairo May 30, 2018 (AltAfrika) – As the wide-scale military operation ‘Comprehensive Sinai 2018’ continues, the official spokesman for the Egyptian Army announced in a 23rd statement that eight militants have been killed in Sinai.

According to the statement released on Tuesday, the Egyptian Armed Forces also managed to arrest 64 suspects believed to be members of the IS (Islamic State) affiliated group ‘Sinai Province’.

It was also stated that the Egyptian Air Forces targeted two vehicles attempting to cross Egypt’s western border loaded with weapons and bombs. In addition, 20 vehicles and 79 motorbikes used by the militants were destroyed.

Also destroyed were 80 stationing points used by the militants as hiding places and storage for their ‘Improvised Explosive Devices’ (IEDS).

In February, the Egyptian Armed Forces cooperated with the police for a wide-scale military operation around Egypt centralized in the Sinai Peninsula, to eliminate the presence of IS. Both the Second and Third Field armies conducted the operation in Sinai.

The IS affiliated group ‘Sinai Province’ has been active in the areas of North and Central Sinai since 2014. The group had been previously known as the ‘Ansar Bait al-Maqdus’, and was established to oppose the Egyptian Armed Forces. The group’s ideology sees the army and police forces as apostates who must be killed in order to pave the way for the Islamic Caliphate.

With the rise of the IS in Iraq and Syria during 2014, the ’Ansar Bait al-Maqdus’ declared its affiliation to IS and changed their name to ‘Sinai Province’. This step was followed by massive and unprecedented attacks against the army and police’s stationing points based in the Sinai Peninsula.

In response to these attacks, the Egyptian Armed Forces launched a number of military operations prior to the ‘Comprehensive Sinai 2018’ operation. These operations went on under the name of ‘Martyr Right’ and witnessed the elimination of hundreds of militants from ‘Sinai Province’.