In one of the deadliest attacks on security forces in 2013, on November 11, 2013 a suicide bomber driving an “explosives-laden car into a convoy of buses transporting army conscripts” near Al-Arish killed 11 troops and injured 35 others. Army spokesman Ahmed Ali reported the attack on his Facebook page, accompanied with a statement that “assured the great Egyptian people of the determination of its men to continue the war against black terrorism.”
The suicide bombing is the latest in a series of militant activities concentrated in the North Sinai governorate of Egypt. Assailants have used machine guns, improvised explosive devices, and rocket-propelled grenades to launch daily attacks on military and police forces stationed near the Gaza Strip since the July 3, 2013 coup that deposed former President Muhammad Morsi. The state-sponsored violence and repression against the Muslim Brotherhood have coincided with the increase in the frequency and severity of attacks by militants in North Sinai, “who see themselves as waging a war against a despotic and irreligious military regime.” Only hours before the suicide bombing, in a separate incident in north Cairo, unknown assailants threw a homemade bomb at a police checkpoint, injuring at least two officers.