A car bomb detonated at a military checkpoint in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, killing seven civilians including two children.
The entire incident including the explosion was captured on closed-circuit television.
Watch the full video below article.
In the video a car approaches an army checkpoint outside the city of Arish, capital of North Sinai province. Though it is not visible on video, soldiers later reported that there were four armed men in the car.
Fearing the worst, a nearby tank rolled on top of the car, hoping to prevent detonation. The tank rolled off and the car exploded.
Three men, two women, and two children were killed.
The Egyptian military released a statement about the incident. “The explosion was large, carrying about 100 kilograms of high explosives,” according to the statement.
The explosion occurred about 200 yards from its target, the actual checkpoint, where civilians and soldiers were concentrated. According to the military, 50-60 people probably would have been killed if the car had made it all the way to the checkpoint.
Egypt has been battling an insurgent force since 2013, when the army overthrew President Mohammed Morsi. Morsi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an radical Islamist group.
A group affiliated with ISIS, based in southern Sinai, claims responsibility for numerous attacks on military outposts.
ISIS has also targeted Coptic Christians, who make up ten percent of Egypt’s population. The group has bombed Coptic churches near Cairo.
A suicide bomber killed 29 people and injured 47 more at El-Botroseya Church, a chapel next to Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope, in Cairo’s Abbasia district, on December 11, 2016. ISIS claimed responsibility.
ISIS also claimed two attacks on palm Sunday, April 9, 2017, at two Coptic churches outside of Cairo.
At least 29 people died and 78 people were injured by a blast inside a church in the of Tanta, 56 miles north of Cairo. An explosion in a Coptic church in Alexandria killed 22.
