Four people were killed and 10 others arrested amid Egyptian army raids on terrorist cell hideouts across the Sinai Peninsula, according to local reports on Tuesday.
These hideouts have been used by criminal groups as launchpads for attacks on Egyptian army and security forces, said state news agency, MENA.
The raids led to the detection of several weapons, artillery and explosives terrorist storage facilities, the destruction of 33 bases, three vehicles and a motorbike.
Meanwhile, security forces have initiated a curfew in Northern Sinai areas, including Al-Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, after carrying out a widescale combing operation.
In Rafah, border guards destroyed four smuggling tunnels along the borderline with Gaza, resulting in a total of 1,845 so far.
These tunnels have become "one of the main impacting threats to Egyptian national security," said the reports, saying that attacks on security forces and the army in the peninsula is a result of the entry of armed terrorist groups through these tunnels.
The tunnels trade has also had catastrophic economic, social and humanitarian impacts on the Sinai community, added the reports Egyptian forces are combatting the threats through a clearly thought-out strategy that aims to put a complete end to this problem, concluded MENA.