CAIRO — An Egyptian security source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur March 28 that the Egyptian air force launched airstrikes against the strongholds of takfiri (extremist) and other terrorist groups south of the Egyptian city of Rafah, killing 16 of them and wounding six others. Three four-wheel-drive vehicles were also destroyed in the operation.

The source said the air raid came in response to the armed groups blowing up five electricity towers in al-Kharouba village in Sheikh Zuweid March 26.

Mustafa Sanjar, a journalist who specializes in Sinai affairs, explained in a phone interview with Al-Monitor that armed men affiliated with terrorist groups in Sinai bombed five electricity towers that transmit power from the provincial capital of el-Arish to the cities of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah in the northern Sinai Peninsula. As a result, the electricity supply to the two cities was disrupted for three days in a row.

Sanjar said citizens informed the government-affiliated Sinai Electricity Department about the power outages March 26. A group of technicians accompanied by a security force headed to the site and found five destroyed electricity towers that had collapsed completely after their bases were bombed.