24 Central Security soldiers are reportedly killed in an attack in Rafah

The Egyptian ministry of interior has said that 24 Egyptian central security soldiers were killed on Monday morning and three others were wounded in an armed attack which targeted two vehicles carrying soldiers from the central security camp in Rafah, North Sinai.

The minister of interior’s assistant of information and public relations, Major General Abdel Fattah Othman, said the incident took place almost seven kilometres from the Rafah camp. The recruits were preparing to leave the army after the end of their military service within the central security sector.

He explained that armed groups surprised the two vehicles carrying the recruits and fired at them. He pointed out that the ministry aims to include the recruits in a list of martyrs, at the earliest opportunity.

The general pointed out that aircrafts from the armed forces were provided to transport the injured to hospitals in Cairo, as well as to transfer the bodies of the victims to their homes.

Al Masry al Youm newspaper quoted security sources that believed that the incident was a reactionary response to the killing of 36 Muslim Brotherhood prisoners, whilst being transferred, near the Abu Za’bal prison in al Qalubia.