Egypt declares three days of mourning after Sinai attack

An Egyptian security source said on Sunday evening that the Rafah border crossing with Gaza had been closed indefinitely, the state news agency MENA reported, after an attack on a police station in Sinai killed at least 15 officers.   

"A security official announced on Sunday evening that the Rafah land port had been closed for cases of travel and arrivals indefinitely. This comes in the wake of the attack by gunmen on a border checkpoint in Rafah in Sinai," MENA said.      

Later in the day, the Egyptian army reported mortar shelling from the Gaza Strip simultaneously with the attack on the Egyptian border guards.

Islamist gunmen killed at least 15 Egyptian police on Sunday and seized two military vehicles to attack a crossing point into Israel, the deadliest incident in Egypt's tense Sinai border region in decades.   

Israeli aircraft destroyed one of the armored vehicles and four of the gunmen were killed, Egyptian security sources said. Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak called for "determined Egyptian action" to "prevent terror in Sinai".   

The attack is an early diplomatic test for Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist who assumed office at the end of June after staunch U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year in a popular uprising.   

It may also complicate Egypt's relations with Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip that borders Egypt and Israel who are close to Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, if it is shown that Palestinian gunmen were involved.   

Israel has accused Palestinian militants in Gaza of involvement in militant activity in Sinai, where insecurity has grown since Mubarak was toppled.   

The commander of the Palestinian National Security forces of the Hamas government, Major General Jamal Jarrah announced that his forces are on alert to maintain security between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.


Jarrah confrimed ongoing coordination on the ground between Egyptian and Palestinian security apparatuses to secure the southern borders of Gaza and prevent the entry of assailants.

Egyptian Army confirmed that citizens from Gaza Strip collaborated with the group of militants that attacked the Egyptian forces in Sinai.

Consequently Egypt declared three days of mourning after the Sinai attack. 

REUTER/LBCI