Three armoured buses are now in operation to transport army conscripts in North Sinai, a security source told Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website.
The buses – given to Egypt by the United Arab Emirates – will transport conscripts between the North Sinai cities of Rafah and Al-Arish – a road famous for militant attacks on unarmed soldiers travelling on leave.
Dozens of Egyptian police conscripts have been killed by terrorist attacks near Rafah since 2012, many of them while being transported on the Rafah-Arish highway.
The Egyptian military is fighting an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, launched after the army’s ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July after mass protests demanding his overthrow.
The former army chief who led the move against Morsi, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, has announced his intention to run in Egypt’s presidential elections in May, which he is widely expected to win.
Bombings and shootings have also been carried out outside of Sinai, including Cairo, where many police officers have been killed.
Source : Ahram online
