August 5, 2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Armed attackers in the Sinai Peninsula killed at least 15 Egyptian soldiers at the Rafah security checkpoint before attempting to infiltrate the Israeli border.

The attackers, reportedly members of the Global Jihadi terror group, also kidnapped several Egyptian soldiers on Sunday evening, according to the Ma’an Palestinian news service. One of the vehicles used in the attack then crossed the border into Israel, where it was targeted and hit by Israeli forces, according to the Israeli military. 

On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Israel called on American citizens to “take precautions” in traveling to the Sinai. The warning came a day after Israel’s National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau called on “all Israelis in Sinai to leave the area immediately and return home.”

The embassy’s security message pointed out that there have been multiple kidnappings in the Sinai of U.S. citizens over the past four years and that kidnappings of foreign tourists in the Sinai have increased since January 2012.

U.S. government personnel are prohibited from traveling to the Sinai, except by air to Sharm el Sheik.
 

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