TheCable

Four people were killed while two sustained injuries when an Egyptian military aircraft crashed near the Libyan border while on a mission against militants on Thursday.

In a statement issued on Friday, the military blamed the incident on a ‘technical fault’.

It did not make it clear whether all the dead and injured were aboard the aircraft.

The Egyptian army and air force were conducting a joint operation against militants in the border area and destroyed four of their vehicles, a military spokesman said.

Egypt is facing an increasingly brazen insurgency based in the Sinai region that has killed hundreds of police and soldiers since the army ousted President Mohamed Morsi, after mass protests against his rule in 2013.

Security officials say militants operating from Libya to the west of Egypt have been trying to forge ties with extremists in the Sinai on the east side of the country.

Sinai Province, Egypt’s most active jihadist group, swore allegiance in 2014 to Islamic State (IS), the ultra-radical Sunni militant group that has seized expanses of Iraq and Syria, drawing US-led air strikes.

Egyptian jets bombed IS targets in Libya in February, a day after the group there released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, drawing Cairo directly into factional conflict across its border.