Egypt hangs 15 militants for attacks in Sinai

Egyptians carry the coffin of a soldier, who was killed in an attack by militants a day earlier in the Sinai Peninsula, during a funeral ceremony in the 10th of Ramadan city, about 60 km north of Cairo, Egypt, on July 8, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Egypt has executed 15 militants convicted of carrying out terrorist attacks that killed government forces in the northern Sinai Peninsula.

Security sources said the convicted militants had been hanged at two prisons in the north of the country early on Tuesday.

Over the past few years, militants belonging to Velayat Sinai extremist terrorist group have been carrying out anti-government activities and deadly attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil in Egypt that erupted after the country's first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted in a military coup in July 2013.

The Takfiri group is linked to Daesh.

The group has also been targeting members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community as well as the foreigners visiting the country.

A deadly terrorist attack left 33 Egyptian soldiers dead in October 2014, prompting the government to impose a state of emergency in Sinai.