'Foreign intelligence' behind Saturday checkpoint attack

Egypt said Thursday that foreign intelligence services were prime suspects in an attack last week that killed 22 soldiers near its border with restive Libya.

Unidentified militants firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns attacked a checkpoint in Egypt's western desert last Saturday.

"Foreign intelligence services are likely to be behind the terrorist elements which carried out" the attack, interior ministry spokesman Hani Abdel Latif said, according to MENA news agency. Latif, however, did not name any country in particular. 

The attack follows repeated Egyptian warnings about a possible spillover of violence from Libya, which has been awash with weapons and gripped by unrest since its 2011 uprising.

"The terrorist operations [in Egypt] are carried out by terrorist elements, mercenaries, trained in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, and recruited by foreign intelligence services," Abdel Latif said.

He said Saturday's attack was aimed at "shaking trust in [Egypt's] security services and army."

Since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Egypt has been rocked by deadly bombings and shootings.

Most of the assaults have been claimed by Islamist fighters amid a bloody crackdown by the authorities on Morsi's supporters.

The police crackdown has left more than 1,400 dead in street clashes, upwards of 15,000 behind bars and around 200 people sentenced to death.

Violence in Sinai

Instability also continued in Sinai, a restive peninsular in eastern Egypt. 

Egyptian army troops have killed three militants in the Sinai Peninsula, according to a military spokesman.

"Three terrorists were killed when a vehicle they were riding exploded during an army attack on terrorist hideouts in North Sinai," spokesman Mohamed Samir wrote on his official Facebook page on Thursday.

"Two other militants were killed in clashes with security forces, while 16 suspected terrorists were arrested," he said.

According to the spokesman, two home-made rockets, two booby-trapped cars and six explosive devices were detonated.

The spokesman said that 35 huts and 15 houses used by militants had been destroyed.