In Pictures: Death and destruction in the Sinai

First-hand reports from Egypt's Sinai, accompanied by rare footage and images, show that the army has used heavy artillery in ongoing operations that have seen whole nomad villages razed.

Authorities say the majority of those killed in the operations were “terrorists” involved in a lethal insurgency in the region, but testimonies given to MEE say the victims were predominately civilians killed by indiscriminate fire.

Family members of the men killed insist that their loved ones were neither involved in any militancy nor were they wanted by the authorities. The locals acknowledge that there were militants among the dead, but that these were just a fraction of those actually killed.