Egyptian army kills 25 militants

Cairo: Egyptian army airstrikes Friday killed 25 members of the Ansar Bayt al-Makdis (ABM) armed group in North Sinai, including some of its leaders, a security source told Xinhua news agency.

Apache helicopters bombed two houses in Sheikh Zuwied City where members of the Islamist group were planning attacks against the Egyptian army, the source said.

Some 20 other militants were wounded in the airstrikes.

The military operation came a week after the ABM, which recently changed its name to Sinai State, killed 31 army and police personnel in car bomb and mortar attacks against security sites in Sinai.

Egypt has been facing a rising wave of terrorism since the ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the military in July 2013, following mass protests against his one-year rule.

Anti-government attacks have since extended from the restive Sinai to Cairo and other provinces across the country, with the ABM group claiming responsibility for dozens of deadly attacks that left hundreds of military and police personnel dead.

The ABM has recently declared loyalty to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. The Sinai-based group, founded in 2011, was designated by a court as a terror group in April last year.