Israel okays Egypt request to deploy more military forces in Sinai

Israel has approved Egypt’s request to deploy two additional infantry battalions and a fleet of attack helicopters to the Sinai Peninsula, Army Radio reported on Thursday.

 

Since the border area of the Sinai is a demilitarized zone as per the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Cairo must procure Jerusalem’s consent to any deployment of additional forces in the area.

 

Meanwhile, a bomb planted in a train killed two Egyptian policemen and wounded 11 other people when it exploded at a station in the Nile Delta province of Menufia late on Wednesday, state television said. Another small bomb exploded about an hour later in a Cairo metro station, wounding three people, the state-run Al-Ahram news portal reported.

 

Egypt has been reeling from a series of attacks by Islamic extremists against soldiers and police as part of an anti-government Islamist insurgency.

 

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