Egyptian security services have identified three militants involved in the attack on a military checkpoint in Rafah, North Sinai, earlier this month that killed 16 soldiers, London-based newspaper Al-Hayat said Saturday, though other security sources denied that any suspects had been identified.
Security sources told the paper that the three are hiding in the Gaza Strip. An agreement was made between Egypt and the Hamas movement for the latter to hand them over to Egypt.
The three identified attackers belonged to the “Army of Islam” and other extremist movements in Gaza Strip.
But another leading security source denied such reports Saturday, telling Deutsche Presse-Agentur that the news was false. “We did not identify certain persons so far, and did not ask Hamas to hand over any Palestinians,” said the source.
Sources have added that joint army and police missions against militants are ongoing in North Sinai, while ruling out the idea that militants are stationed only in the area of Halal Mountain, saying that other locations are now known and that militants are being apprehended alive so that their financial sources can be investigated. The sources added that all local Sinai Bedouin tribes were cooperating with the operation.
Meanwhile, AFP has reported that Egyptian military engineers have destroyed 120 tunnels used for smuggling to and from Gaza since the start of operations, security officials said on Saturday.
"Tunnel entrances are being demolished every day and the operation will continue until all underground passageways are shut," one official told AFP.
No less than 12 tunnels were blocked in the past two days on the Egyptian side, the source said, adding that the most of the tunnels lie in a four-kilometer stretch of the border. Because some of the tunnels have been found in residential areas, the army has not used explosives or water to destroy them.
Seven homes sitting on top of tunnel exits were leveled and two massive underground passages used to smuggle cars into the Gaza Strip were sealed, security officials said.
Egypt is also searching for 120 wanted militants and believes around 1,600 extremists, including foreigners, are hiding out in the Sinai, the official MENA news agency reported Wednesday.
The government has long struggled with militancy and smuggling in the region but unrest has worsened since an uprising overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak in February last year, prompting the collapse of his discredited police force.
In other news, a Hamas delegation is heading to Cairo for security talks later Saturday amid Egyptian anger at the raid earlier this month, officials from the Islamist group said.
"A security team from Gaza will leave for several meetings with Egyptian security," Hamas interior ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein told AFP.
He said that the object was "to coordinate completely on all security issues, including border security and events which happened in Sinai and the Rafah border crossing."
Egypt closed the crossing –– Gaza's only gateway to the outside world that bypasses Israel –– after the 5 August attack and has since only partially reopened it.
Egyptian officials have charged that some of the 35 gunmen who stormed the army post killing 16 soldiers had crossed from Gaza through the network of smuggling tunnels that run under the Gaza border.
But Gaza's Hamas rulers have said no Palestinians are suspected of involvement in the attack.
Asked if the Hamas delegation would take part in the Egyptian investigation, Ghussein said they would not be "directly involved" but would coordinate with Egyptian colleagues.
