CAIRO — On Monday, 28 central security conscripts were pulled out their busses on the highway to their barracks in the border town of Rafah, their hands were tied behind their backs before they were shot from behind, the execution-style operation left 25 dead and three critically injured. The assailants fled, and the avalanche of attacks — that kicked off a few hours after Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced Mohammed Morsi's ouster on July 3 — continued to echo across north Sinai and claim the lives of more military and police personnel.

The attack, which took place a few days after the anniversary of the Rafah massacre that left 16 soldiers dead on Aug. 5, 2012, came as a blow to the repeated official statements affirming the military’s tight grip on the north eastern corner of the Sinai Peninsula that became a haven for armed militants since the January 2011 uprising.

Spotting the conscripts as their busses drove on north Sinai’s highway cutting through the capital El-Arish, stopping them at a deserted point, and executing them in broad day light, demonstrated that the capabilities of such militant groups go far beyond targeting checkpoints and government offices.

A Sinai tribal leader told Al-Monitor that “such an operation means that whoever the militants are, they have undercover agents moving freely in different locations and keeping an eye on everything, moreover, they are capable of communicating in a way that is clearly unknown to the authorities.”