Three militants were killed on Wednesday in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula when their car bomb went off before they arrived to their intended targets, a security official said.
The bomb detonated as the men entered the north Sinai town of al-Arish, where two troops were killed in a gunfire attack earlier in the day.
Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi called on Wednesday for demonstration in support of a crackdown on “terrorism and violence.” Islamists denounced Sisi’s statement and said it was a call to “civil war” ahead of their own rallies.
There has been rising tension following the military’s ouster of President Mohammad Mursi earlier this month. The army chief’s call for protests increases the chances of further violence in the country between pro- and anti-Mursi citizens.
