Fifty killed in North Sinai attacks claimed by ISIL

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants launched a wide-scale coordinated assault on several military checkpoints in Egypt's North Sinai on July 1 in which 50 people were killed, security sources said, the largest attack yet in the insurgency-hit province. 

Egyptian army F-16 jets and Apache helicopters strafed the region that lies within the Sinai Peninsula, a strategic area located between Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal. 

It was the second high-profile attack in Egypt this week. On June 29, the prosecutor-general was killed in a car bombing in Cairo. 

The attacks raise questions about the government's ability to contain a Sinai-based insurgency that has already killed hundreds of police and soldiers. 

ISIL's Egyptian affiliate, Sinai Province, claimed responsibility for the Sinai attacks in a Twitter statement. 

The army had said five checkpoints were attacked by about 70 militants and that soldiers had destroyed three landcruisers fitted with anti-aircraft guns. Without giving a breakdown, the army spokesman said the death toll among soldiers and attackers had increased. 

The militants have previously carried out some big attacks that have killed scores of security personnel, but in general they have focused on smaller-scale attacks. 

The July 1 incident marks the biggest onslaught yet. 

The exact breakdown of identities of those killed was not immediately clear. Security sources had said at least 36 people, including soldiers, policemen and civilians were killed and 38 militants were also killed. 

The army spokesman first said 10 soldiers were killed or wounded and 22 attackers were killed. He later added that the number of deaths had increased on both sides....