The Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced that the local security forces had eliminated two "armed squads" in El-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, including 16 operatives who held weapons and explosives in their possession, including an explosive belt intended for a suicide bombing.
According to a report in the Al-Ahram newspaper, Egypt's national security forces succeeded in locating the two cells which planned to carry out a series of terrorist attacks against essential facilities and senior figures in the El-Arish area.