Egyptian army source: Recent calm in north Sinai due to operations

Soldiers destroy fuel container and burn 200,000 liters of fuel meant for smuggling to Gaza.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
Egyptian soldiers move into El Arish, northern Sinai (photo credit: Reuters)
Egyptian soldiers move into El Arish, northern Sinai
(photo credit: Reuters)
The Egyptian army continues to crack down on smuggling into Gaza, El-Watan newspaper reported on Sunday.
Witnesses said soldiers stormed fields close to the Gaza Strip and destroyed a container storing fuel ready to be smuggled under the border.
The witnesses claimed the army burned 200,000 liters of fuel and destroyed the collecting pool.
The calm in northern Sinai over the past few days was due to the arrest of most of the terrorists, a security source quoted by the Egyptian paper Al-Masry Al-Youm said on Saturday .
Egyptians, Palestinians, Syrians and Afghans have been arrested for attacks and are being held in Cairo, the source said.
The situation in Sinai has boiled over since the overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi on July 3 as Islamic radical groups have been attacking military and government facilities.
Meanwhile, Maj.-Gen. Ahmed Wasfy, commander of the Ismailia- headquartered Second Field Army in the peninsula, met with a group of youth in the northern Sinai on Saturday to discuss the situation, according to Daily News Egypt. Wasfy called on them to back the army against terrorism.
The young men asked for information on those arrested for killing 16 soldiers last year in Rafah and for the army to stop the practice of making random arrests.