15 egyptiske grensesoldater drept

Mas­kerte menn drepte 15 egyp­tiske sol­da­ter ved grense­byen Rafah inn til Gaza. Det er en av de alvor­ligste epi­so­der på lang tid.

Sinai er i ferd med å bli et lov­løst område.

Mas­ked gun­men kil­led 16 Egyp­tian sol­di­ers Sun­day at a check­point along the bor­der with Gaza and Israel, the first such attack on tro­ops — and then the attack­ers drove off, crashing into Israel, offi­ci­als said.

Egypt bla­med Isla­mist mili­tants from Gaza and Egypt’s troubled Sinai Pen­in­sula. Pre­si­dent Moham­med Morsi said the attack­ers “will pay dearly.“
The Israeli mili­tary said the attack was part of a plot to abduct an Israeli sol­dier, and two vehic­les com­mande­ered by the attack­ers crashed into Israel, where one blew up.
In a state­ment, Israel’s Defense Minis­ter Ehud Barak said Israel’s mili­tary and the inter­nal security agency “thwar­ted an attack that could have inju­red many. The mili­tants’ attack met­hods again raise the need for deter­mined Egyp­tian action to enforce security and pre­vent ter­ror in the Sinai.“
The attack took place around sun­set in the Egyp­tian bor­der town of Rafah, when the

tro­ops were having the tra­ditio­nal meal at the end of the daily fast during the Isla­mic holy month of Rama­dan.
Egyp­tian state TV said the attack on the check­point was car­ried out by Isla­mist mili­tants. The report said 16 tro­ops were kil­led in the attack coor­di­nated between Pale­sti­ni­ans who ente­red Egypt from Gaza and Egyp­ti­ans in Sinai.
Emer­gency ser­vices offi­cial Ahmed el-Ansari told Egypt’s news agency that seven were woun­ded by gun­fire.
Egypt’s Pre­si­dent Moham­med Morsi con­ve­ned an emer­gency meeting with mili­tary and security lea­ders following the attack. In a state­ment from the president’s office, Morsi offe­red his con­do­len­ces to the fami­lies of the dead and said the “cowardly” attack will not go “wit­hout a response.“
“Those who car­ried out this crime will pay dearly,” Morsi’s state­ment said.
The head of the bor­der guards, a para­mi­li­tary force under the com­mand of Egypt’s Defense Mini­s­try, went to the scene of the attack, the TV said.
In a state­ment late Sun­day, Morsi’s Mus­lim Brot­her­hood urged Egyp­tian aut­hori­ties to take all neces­sary measu­res to “con­front this serious chal­lenge to the Egyp­tian sover­eignty and to pro­tect Sinai from all armed groups.“
It was one of the bloo­diest attacks in Sinai in years and the dead­li­est against Egyp­tian tro­ops, under­li­ning the growing law­lessness of the Egyp­tian ter­ri­tory, where security for­ces have become tar­gets of mili­tants, some loo­sely lin­ked with al-Qaida.

By Hag­gag Salama, AP