Sinai roadside bomb kills Egyptian soldier, wounds 7

An explosive device was detonated along a main road in the Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, killing one Egyptian soldier and wounding seven others. An Egyptian armored personnel carrier and a military bus carrying soldiers were traveling across the Sinai's Northern desert near Bab Sdeirot, a small town near Rafah, when the bomb exploded on the roadside, Ma'an reported. The dead Egyptian soldier was identified as Ahmad Mohammad Mahmud, 40. The bomb was detonated on the major road connecting Rafah and el-Arish in the Northern Sinai Peninsula, near the border with the Gaza Strip. The wounded were sent to el-Arish military hospital for treatment. Many of the injuries were severe, including limb amputations. Egyptian armed forces launched large scale military action against militants in the Sinai Peninsula earlier in September, in what officials described as the largest mobilization of force in the area since the 1973 war with Israel. The military action comes in the wake of rising instability and almost daily attacks in the region, following a July 3 coup by the Egyptian military which unseated President Mohammad Mursi.