Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Saturday the battle against terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula would be a long and hard one, as violence there continues unabated

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the battle against terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula would be a long and hard one, as violence there continues unabated.
  
Sisi spoke following a meeting with his top brass two days after militants killed 30 people and wounded dozens in attacks, including a car bombing, in North Sinai.
  
Thursday's attacks were claimed by militants from Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant terrorist group. And on Saturday an interior ministry employee was shot in the head in North Sinai's regional capital of El-Arish.
  
"The battle will be difficult, hard and hellish, and it will be long," Sisi said in remarks on state television. Flanked by his top generals and occasionally raising his voice in anger, Sisi said "we will not abandon the Sinai to anyone."
  
He also announced the creation of a unified anti-terrorist military command, which military sources said would expand operations in Sinai and be allocated more weapons and troops.
  
Sisi also repeated accusations that the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood of deposed president Mohammad Mursi is behind the violence, a claim the group denies.
  
Late Saturday, security sources said the army fired on "a car driven by a suicide bomber and blew it up as it approached a military checkpoint" in Sheikh Zuweid, east of El-Arish. The sources also reported clashes between soldiers and gunmen south of Rafah, on the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip.