Cairo (AFP) - Egypt on Thursday pressed its campaign to crush an escalating insurgency in Sinai, vowing to wipe out "dens of terror" on the peninsula after a spectacular attack by jihadists killed dozens.

The violence poses a major test for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who has pledged to eliminate the militants.

The military deployed F-16 warplanes on Wednesday to bomb the Islamic State fighters who battled security forces on the streets of the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid after launching a surprise dawn blitz on army checkpoints.

It said 17 soldiers and 100 militants had been killed, but medical and security officials said the death toll was at least 70 people, mostly soldiers. Dozens of jihadists also died.

On Thursday the military carried out search operations around Sheikh Zuweid, security officials said.

The head of security in North Sinai, General Ali al-Azazi, told AFP that security forces were "mobilised against the terrorists in Sheikh Zuweid".

Azazi said the ability of the jihadists to carry out new operations had been badly undermined because their huge losses both in men and weapons during Wednesday's confrontations.

The White House condemned the unprecedented wave of attacks, which came two days after state prosecutor Hisham Barakat was assassinated in a Cairo car bombing, the most senior government official killed in the jihadist insurgency.

View gallery

Egyptians carry the coffin of soldier Abdrahman al-Metwaly during his funeral in Mansura on July 2, …

The US National Security Council said it "will continue to assist Egypt in addressing these threats to its security".

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi urged the international community to "support the Egyptian government's efforts in fighting terrorist groups".

- 'Hamas gave support' -

A senior Israeli officer said the militant Palestinian group Hamas played a part in the attacks.

"In the latest attacks Hamas gave support with weapons and organisation to groups supporting IS," Major General Yoav Mordechai, said in an interview in Arabic with Al-Jazeera television.

There was no immediate comment from Cairo following the Israeli accusations but Egyptian authorities have in the past accused Hamas of backing jihadists in the Sinai .

The army says it has destroyed hundreds of tunnels used for smuggling supplies and arms between Sinai and Gaza, also used by militants to infiltrate Egypt.

View gallery

Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi stands behind bars during his trial in Cairo, on June 16, …

State-owned newspapers rallied around Egypt's army, with Al-Akhbar newspaper calling for "Revenge" in its headline.

The military spokesman posted photographs on Facebook of militants killed in the fighting.

On Thursday gunmen on a motorbike shot dead a policeman in the town of Fayoum, south of Cairo, police said.

- 'Terrorists moved freely'-

The Sinai attacks were the most brazen in their scope since jihadists launched an insurgency in 2013 after the army, under Sisi's command, overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Militants took over rooftops and fired rocket-propelled grenades at a police station in Sheikh Zuweid after mining its exits to block reinforcements, a police colonel said.

"For hours the terrorists moved freely in the streets which they had mined," said Ayman Mohsen, a resident from Sheikh Zuweid who witnessed Wednesday's clashes.

"They fired rockets and bullets at the army camp in Zuhour and the Sheikh Zuweid police station."

"This is war," said a senior military officer. "It's unprecedented, in the number of terrorists involved and the type of weapons they are using."

The Islamic State group said its jihadists surrounded the police station after launching attacks on 15 checkpoints and security installations using suicide car bombers and rockets.

Troops regularly come under attack in the Sinai, where jihadists have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since Morsi's overthrow.

In April dozens of militants attacked checkpoints, killing 15 soldiers, and in January 25 people, most of them soldiers were killed in a rocket and car bomb attack on multiple police and army targets.

Analysts said the army lacked expertise in fighting the insurgents.

"It's not putting in the right units. The groups need to be chased by special forces and what the army is doing is that it is deploying regiments. Sending F-16s does not work," said Professor Mathieu Guidere, a specialist on jihadist groups at France's University of Toulouse.

Egypt responded to the growing insurgency on Wednesday by passing a controversial anti-terror law and requesting the appeals process be shortened, in measures it said would "achieve swift justice and revenge for our martyrs".

Washington (AFP) - A senior Islamic State leader who coordinated suicide bombings and recruited funds and fighters for the jihadists has been killed in a coalition air strike in Syria, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Tariq bin Tahar al-Awni al-Harzi was killed in the northern city of Shaddadi on June 16, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said in a statement.

His brother Ali, an IS recruiter and person of interest in the 2012 Benghazi attack, was killed by an air strike in Iraq a day earlier.

Washington had put a $3-million bounty on the head of Harzi, a 33-year-old Tunisian, and described him in the past as the IS group's "emir of suicide bombers."

As of late 2013, Harzi was a key figure in suicide and car bombings in Iraq, the US says.

The Pentagon said his killing was a significant blow to the Islamic State group.

"His death will impact ISIL's ability to integrate foreign terrorist fighters into the Syrian and Iraqi fight as well as to move people and equipment across the border between Syria and Iraq," Davis said, using an alternative acronym for the group.

The Pentagon said Harzi was also "responsible for moving people and material into Syria and Iraq" and also raised funds to recruit fighters and facilitate travel.

In addition, he supported the Islamic State group by procuring and shipping weapons from Libya to Syria, where the militants have taken large swathes of territory.

He also worked to help raise funds from Gulf-based donors for the Islamic State group, the United States says, including about $2 million from a Qatar-based facilitator.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian Authority forces arrested over 100 Hamas members in the West Bank who were planning on carrying out attacks, a Palestinian official said, in the biggest raid of its kind in years.

Spokesman for Palestinian security, Adnan Dameri said "We will not let Hamas undermine our security and draw our country to bloodshed, we will not let Hamas carry out attacks in the West Bank."

It was the biggest mass arrest in one night since 2007 when Palestinians split after the Islamic militant group Hamas violently ousted forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas from Gaza, leaving him governing just parts of the West Bank.

Hamas spokesman Husam Badran said in a statement the arrests were meant to stop the recent spate of deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

He accused Palestinian security forces of working for Israel and said the militant group holds Abbas personally responsible. Hamas will continue attacks against Israelis in the West Bank, he said.

There has been a surge in deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis recently. Two Israelis were killed in separate West Bank shootings that also injured several people, and two others wounded in stabbing attacks.

Hamas in Gaza published names of 108 of its members who had been arrested.

Associated Press Videos
Reelz Rescues Miss USA Pageant, Dropped by NBC

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hispanic leaders are warning of harm to Republican White House hopes unless the party's presidential contenders do more to condemn Donald Trump, a businessman turned presidential candidate who's refusing to apologize for calling Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers.

Trump's comments, delivered in his announcement speech last month, have haunted the GOP for much of the last two weeks and dominated Spanish-language media. It's bad timing for a Republican Party that has invested significantly in Hispanic outreach in recent years, given the surging influence of the minority vote.

Yet several Republican candidates have avoided the issue altogether, while those who have weighed in have declined to criticize Trump as strongly as many Hispanic leaders would like.

"The time has come for the candidates to distance themselves from Trump and call his comments what they are: ludicrous, baseless and insulting," said Alfonso Aguilar, a Republican who leads the American Principles Project's Latino Partnership. "Sadly, it hurts the party with Hispanic voters. It's a level of idiocy I haven't seen in a long time."

The political and practical Trump-related fallout has intensified in recent days.

The leading Hispanic television network, Univision, has backed out of televising the Miss USA pageant, a joint venture between Trump and NBC, which also cut ties with Trump. On Wednesday, the Macy's department store chain, which carried a Donald Trump menswear line, said it was ending its relationship with him. Other retailers are facing pressure to follow suit.

The reaction from Republican presidential candidates, however, has often been far less aggressive.

Trump Creating 'Nightmare Scenario' For GO …Play video

In a recent interview on Fox News, conservative firebrand Ted Cruz insisted that Trump should not apologize.

"I like Donald Trump," said Cruz, a Texas senator who is Hispanic. "I think he's terrific. I think he's brash. I think he speaks the truth. And I think that NBC is engaging in political correctness that is silly and that is wrong."

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said simply that Trump is "wrong."

"Maybe we'll have a chance to have an honest discussion about it on stage," Bush said last weekend while campaigning in Nevada.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who often talks about his re-election margins with Latino voters, called Trump's comments "wholly inappropriate" during a news conference. In a subsequent radio interview, Christie described Trump as "a really wonderful guy (who's) always been a good friend."

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, silent on the issue for more than two weeks, took a more pointed tone in a statement Thursday evening. "Trump's comments are not just offensive and inaccurate, but also divisive," said Rubio, a Hispanic. "Our next president needs to be someone who brings Americans together — not someone who continues to divide."

View gallery

In this June 30, 2015, photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves as he arrives at …

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday: "I don't think Donald Trump's remarks reflect the Republican Party."

Among others, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former technology executive Carly Fiorina and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson have been silent.

"We're listening very, very closely, not just what candidates say but what they don't say — the sins of commission and the sins of omission," said Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, who called Trump's comments "xenophobic rhetoric."

Trump is showing no sign of backing down.

"My statements have been contorted to seem racist and discriminatory," he wrote in a message to supporters on Thursday. "What I want is for legal immigrants to not be unfairly punished because others are coming into America illegally, flooding the labor market and not paying taxes."

"You can count on me to keep fighting," he continued.

In his announcement speech, Trump said Mexican immigrants are "bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

Such rhetoric resonates with some of the Republican Party's most passionate voters, who have long viewed illegal immigration as one of the nation's most pressing problems. Yet GOP leaders have urged conservatives to adopt a more welcoming tone in recent years as Hispanic voters increasingly sided with Democrats.

Not since the 2004 re-election campaign of President George W. Bush has a Republican presidential candidate earned as much as 40 percent of the Hispanic vote. Mitt Romney got a dismal 27 percent in the 2012 contest against President Barack Obama.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton cast Trump's remarks as "emblematic" of a larger perception within the Republican Party.

"A recent entry into the Republican presidential campaign said some very inflammatory things about Mexican immigrants," she said in an interview last month. "Everyone should stand up and say that's not acceptable."

Meanwhile, the attention has helped Trump sell some books. "Trump: The Art of the Deal," first published in 1987, and a release from 2007, "Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life," were both in the top 2,000 on Amazon.com's best-seller list as of midday Thursday. "Think Big," co-written by Bill Zanker, was Amazon's top seller for personal finance.

___

Associated Press writers Ken Thomas in Washington, Hillel Italie in New York and Jill Colvin in Ashland, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

Hispanic leaders say Republicans must do more to condemn Donald Trump's remarks about Mexicans.
Where candidates stand