SHEIKH ZUWAYYED, North Sinai, Egypt — On Tuesday, Aug. 27, North Sinai witnessed its first suicide attack that targeted Sheikh Zuwayyed's police compound. Despite being accustomed to echoing gunshots and explosions around their restive community, residents of the town and its surrounding Bedouin villages were shocked by the devastation and fear what is to come.

Egyptian security authorities offered few details regarding the attack, which is seen as a major development in the tactics and momentum of Sinai's militant groups that have unleashed an uninterrupted chain of attacks on police and military checkpoints and facilities over the past seven weeks.

The attack on the town's bustling market day was witnessed by hundreds of unfortunate civilians either caught in or on the periphery of a deadly, prolonged battle between unidentified assailants and security forces. A few of the witnesses talked with Al-Monitor but insisted on concealing their identities.

Essam Saeed, a resident of Sheikh Zuwayyed, left his house around 9:45 a.m. heading to a tea shop 150 yards from the town's main square. Behind him stood the massive police compound and a side street jammed with people en route to the town's famous Tuesday market, which attracts hundreds of people from surrounding villages.