Rocket attack kills girl in Egypt's Sinai

Cairo, July 29 (IANS) A nine-year-old girl was killed and another girl was injured when a rocket hit their house in Egypt's restive Sinai peninsula, an official said Tuesday.

The rocket was apparently targeted at a security patrol passing near the house in south Sheikh Zuweid city in Egypt's North Sinai province bordering Israel, the official told Xinhua.

The attack is likely a revenge act for the dozens of militants killed last week by the armed forces, the official added.

At least 40 extremists were killed in military raids that continued from Friday afternoon until Sunday night at Sheikh Zuweid in response to the killing of two police and military officers by gunmen.

On Monday, seven extremists were killed and five others injured in a security raid on several crime strongholds in North Sinai, an army statement said.

Three militants were killed in shootouts while the other four were shot dead after they attempted to attack the house of a resident in Mahadiya district in Rafah city, the statement said.

During the raid, four jihadis were arrested and five motorbikes used by the militants to attack the security forces were destroyed, it added.

The attacks by extremist militant groups mounted mainly in the restive Sinai Peninsula and some other provinces across the country, including the capital Cairo, since the military ousted former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year.

The militants, in revenge for the harsh security crackdown on the major sit-ins of Morsi's supporters in August, which left at least 1,000 killed and thousands arrested, have been always targeting the security personnel, but it caused civilian casualties as well.

The Sinai-based Al Qaeda-linked Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group claimed responsibility for most of attacks against the security personnel.