Two Islamic State (ISIS) bomb attacks in Egypt's Sinai region killed five Egyptian soldiers and a civilian on Thursday. The attackers had targeted two of the Egyptian military's armored personnel carriers in the region with remote detonated explosives they had planted on the roads in Rafah and Sheikh Zuwayed said Egyptian security and medical sources cited by Reuters. Egypt has been battling Islamist militants in the Sinai for years now, a campaign which has intensified since July 2013 when the Muslim Brotherhood government was overthrown in a military coup. The primary Islamist group which fought Cairo in Sinai was the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis group which officially merged with ISIS in late 2014 and simply became known as ISIS-Sinai. Throughout its existence the group has been responsible for killing hundreds of Egyptian police and soldiers in attacks like Thursday's. They also hope to further damage Egypt's economy by scaring away western tourists by targeting areas of the country frequented by them.
