Egypt military kills 7 militants in volatile Sinai

An Egyptian military spokesman says troops have killed seven suspected militants and arrested five as part of an ongoing offensive in the volatile Sinai Peninsula where the military has been trying to quell a spreading insurgency by Islamic militants.

A statement late Monday on Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir’s official Facebook page says troops killed three militants in an exchange of fire while four others died when a group tried to attack a house in the border town of Rafah.

Militant attacks in Sinai and elsewhere in Egypt have escalated since the military’s ouster last July of the country’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsy and its subsequent crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood supporters.