Egyptian soldiers stand guard in the area of the Rafah Crossing border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on May 21, 2013.
An Egyptian security official says a militant has been killed and three others arrested in a military campaign in volatile Sinai Peninsula.
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said on Tuesday that the military campaign took place in southern Rafah in North Sinai.
Eight vehicles belonging to the militants were seized, the official said.
Earlier in the day, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi sent dozens of troops and armed vehicles to Sinai Peninsula after seven members of security forces were kidnapped there.
On the same day, Hisham Qandil issued a statement, saying that Egypt is working to secure the release of the abductees.
Å“There are intense efforts on all fronts for the return of the captured conscripts safely,” Qandil said.
Earlier this week, a video was released by the kidnappers, showing the seven abductees taken hostage, asking Morsi and Defense Minister Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to meet the demands of the abductors.
On May 16, a group of masked armed men kidnapped seven recruits, three from the police and four from the military, in North Sinai’s Green Valley, some 20 kilometers away from el-Arish, the capital of the North Sinai governorate.
According to security officials, abductors had demanded earlier the release of political prisoners, among whom Hamada Abou Sheita, who is sentenced to death over a deadly attack on a police station in North Sinai in 2011.
Militant groups and criminals have exploited a security vacuum that has developed in Sinai since the 2011 uprising against former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
MAM/PR
This article originally appeared on : Press TV