AL-ARISH, Egypt, Aug 8, (Agencies): Egyptian aircraft struck at targets near the border with Israel on Wednesday and troops raided villages as a crackdown began on Islamic militants blamed for a deadly attack on Egyptian border police, army officials and witnesses said.

Israel, urging Egypt to deal with a growing threat on its southern flank, voiced approval of the security sweep, the biggest military assault in the area since their 1973 war.

The air strikes around the town of Sheikh Zuwaid, 10 kms (6 miles) from the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip, followed clashes overnight between armed men and security forces at several checkpoints in the north of Egypt’s Sinai region.

Gunmen killed 16 border guards on Sunday in the bloodiest attack on security forces in Sinai since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979. The attackers stormed through the border into Israel but they were killed by Israeli fire.

The militants, sworn to destroy Israel, have stepped up their actions on the isolated desert frontier since an uprising toppled Egypt’s autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak last year.

The new president, Mohamed Morsy, a more moderate Islamist who took office in June, tried to allay Israeli concerns with promises to bring the region back under government control.
But Morsy has also brought Egypt closer to the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza, making this a delicate time in relations between the Jewish state and the Arab power.

The militant strongholds are in northern Sinai. Red Sea resorts further south are popular with foreign tourists and a lifeline for Egypt’s struggling economy.

The Egyptian army, which kept peace with Israel throughout the Mubarak years and still has broad sway over national security, promised retribution after Sunday’s attacks and brought in 500 extra soldiers and police.

But there was no crackdown until Tuesday night after armed men opened fire on several checkpoints in al-Arish town, the security and administrative centre for northern Sinai.

Gunmen also attacked checkpoints in Rafah, Egypt’s entry point into the Gaza Strip that borders both Israel and Egypt.

Explosions
On Wednesday morning, witnesses in Sheikh Zuwaid said two military planes flew over the area and heard explosions. Other people near the town said they saw three cars bombed.
Egypt’s military leadership said ground and air forces had begun to restore stability in Sinai.
“The forces were able to execute the plan successfully. The forces will continue the plan and calls on tribes and families of Sinai to cooperate in the restoration of security,” it said.
Troops entered al-Toumah village, 20 kms (15 miles) to the south, acting on information that militants were staying there, army commanders in Sinai told Reuters. One said 20 militants were killed.
A villager said he saw military helicopters chasing vehicles out of al-Toumah and heard rocket fire. The men in the cars fired back with machine guns, he said. An army general in al-Toumah said helicopters destroyed three vans in which militants tried to escape.

The military response focused on Shaikh Zuwaid, a mud-brick settlement that relies heavily on profits from smuggling goods and people through tunnels into Gaza since the Palestinian territory was cut off from Israel.

Egypt said the gunmen behind Sunday’s attack arrived via the tunnels and it began work to seal them off on Tuesday.

Israel has long accused Palestinian jihadi groups of crossing from Gaza to Egypt to team up with local militants with the aim of attacking Israel’s long border. Last August armed infiltrators killed eight Israelis on the Egyptian frontier.

“What we see in Egypt is a strong fury, a determination of the regime and the army to take care of it and impose order in Sinai because that is their responsibility,” a senior Israeli defence official, Amos Gilad, said on Israel Radio on Wednesday.

Mubarak’s government worked closely with Israel to secure the frontier region until he was toppled 18 months ago.

Fired
Morsy fired his intelligence chief and the governor of Northern Sinai on Wednesday following the deadly weekend attack on troops by suspected militants in Sinai.
In a major shake-up, Morsy also asked Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi to replace the commander of the military police, a force that has been heavily used since the ouster 18 months ago of Hosni Mubarak. He also fired the commander of the presidential guards and named new chiefs for security in Cairo and the police’s large central security, a large paramilitary force often deployed to deal with riots.
The changes followed the killing on Sunday of 16 soldiers at a post in Sinai along the border with Israel and the Gaza Strip. The attack raised questions about the readiness of Egyptian forces in the area, particularly after Israel warned the country several days earlier of an imminent attack.

Health
Egypt’s closure of the Rafah border crossing may lead to a serious health disaster, Gaza’s heath authority warned on Wednesday.

“The decision to close the Rafah crossing to patients and humanitarian cases will add to their suffering and harm their health, and could lead to a serious health disaster,” health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

“For Palestinians, it is the only way out to the world and it gives hope to hundreds of patients with serious health problems,” said Qudra, noting that many kinds of medicine were not available in the Hamas-controlled territory.

Gaza has been under semi-blockade by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took over the enclave.
The US is vowing to improve counterterrorism cooperation with Egypt after 16 Egyptian soldiers were killed by suspected Islamist militants.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed her condolences in a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Hesham Kandil. She voiced support for the Egyptian government’s efforts to strengthen security.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said that “violent extremism poses a threat to Egyptians, Egypt’s neighbors and Americans alike,” and that the US is committed to strengthening US counterterror work with Egypt.

The attack near Egypt’s borders with Israel and Gaza highlighted the deteriorating security since last year’s revolution.

Ventrell said the US is steadfastly committed to Israel’s security.
Ventrell said people in the region would be reassured when Egypt’s new Islamist government establishes working relations with its neighbors.

Egyptian police have arrested a Canadian student in Sinai on suspicion of involvement in an ambush that killed 16 soldiers, security officials said on Wednesday.

The said the man, identified as David Edward, was in possession of an Egyptian identification card belonging to someone else and had taken pictures of armoured personnel vehicles.
A Canadian embassy official said he could not confirm or deny the arrest, due to privacy reasons.
The officials said Edward entered the country on Sunday, the day militants killed the soldiers in an ambush, and was a student at a Canadian university.

Egyptian troops and police are conducting a sweeping crackdown on Islamist militants who targeted the soldiers.

Egyptian security can be suspicious of foreigners and has arrested several over the past year on suspicion of spying or involvement in unrest, eventually releasing them.