ISIS Attacks Egyptian Naval Ship
The Egyptian branch of ISIS hit an Egyptian naval vessel with a missile, the latest in a string of successful attacks in that past month that include killing the country's top legal official and seizing control of an entire town.
The New York Times reports that the ship that was struck and caught fire was sailing in the Mediterranean off the north Sinai Peninsula, which is known to be a stronghold of various Islamists groups that have been waging a war against the dictatorship of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who overthrew Egypt's first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi.
The Times reports that images on ISIS affiliated social media accounts showed what appeared to be a missile streaking toward the ship and large explosion. They said that the explosion destroyed the ship and killed everyone onboard. The Egyptian military government denied this, saying the fire was the result of an exchange of gunfire between the militants and the naval vessel, and that no one died in the incident, which took place at around 9:30 a.m. local time.
The attack illustrates the increasing success the militants are having in their war against the Egyptian government. At the end of June Egypt's attorney general Hisham Barakat was killed by a remote-controlled car bomb as his motorcade made its way through the claustrophobic streets of Cairo.
Less than a week after that, a coordinated attack on military and police checkpoints in the northern Sinai allowed militants to take control of the town of Sheikh Zuwaid for a number of hours. The situation grew so dire for Egyptian forces they were forced to call in air support in the form of F-16s and helicopter gunships.
