Egypt says killed 26 Sinai 'terrorists' over last week

The Egyptian army has killed 26 "terrorists" and arrested 84 others over the past week in a crackdown on militant hotbeds in several parts of the country, the military said Sunday.

The crackdown targeted suspected militant hideouts in the northeastern provinces of North Sinai, Ismailia and Port Said as well as the Nile Delta province of Daqahliya, military spokesman Mohamed Samir said in a Facebook statement.

He added that military forces in the restive Sinai Peninsula had destroyed the openings of 18 cross-border tunnels linking Rafah city to the bordering Gaza Strip.

Samir also said that military forces had thwarted attempts of illegal migration by 148 people, including Palestinian, Syrian and Sudanese nationals.

He went on to say that army forces had seized "large quantities of weapons and vehicles used for terrorist operations."

For the past year, the Egyptian army has waged a major offensive against militant groups said to be based in the Sinai Peninsula, which shares borders with both Israel and the Gaza Strip.

The region has seen a spate of attacks by unknown militants on security personnel since last summer's ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi by the army.