CAIRO, April 15 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian government has dedicated 275 billion Egyptian pounds (about 15.6 billion U.S. dollars) for the development of the Sinai Peninsula within four year as part of the country's efforts to eradicate terrorism, the Egyptian prime minister told the parliament on Sunday.
"Counterterrorism efforts will not bear its fruits unless made side by side with comprehensive development. Based on this, a national program has been launched for Sinai development with an initial finance of 275 billion Egyptian pounds for four years," Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said in a statement before the parliament.
North Sinai province, the northern part of the peninsula, has been the center of a wave of terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers over the past few years, with a Sinai-based group affiliated with the regional Islamic State terror group claiming responsibility for most of them.
Ismail's announcement came a day after at least eight Egyptian soldiers were killed and 15 others wounded in a terror attack on a military camp in central Sinai, a mountainous area between North and South Sinai, while the soldiers killed 14 terrorists.
Earlier on Saturday, the Egyptian army announced killing 27 militants and arresting 114 suspects in the latest raids in the Sinai Peninsula as part of the country's massive anti-terror military operation "Sinai 2018" that left so far about 200 terrorists and at least 22 soldiers dead since it started in February.
Terrorism rose in Egypt following the military ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against Morsi's one-year rule and his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
Terror attacks gradually expanded from North Sinai province bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip to other provinces including the capital Cairo and started to target the Coptic minority via church bombings and shootings.
Terrorists did not stop at targeting security personnel and Copts, as they stormed a mosque in North Sinai's Arish city last November, killing more than 300 Muslim worshippers and injuring over 120 others, marking the deadliest terror attack and the first against a mosque in Egypt's modern history.
Following the mosque attack, Egyptian newly reelected President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who led Morsi's 2013 removal as the army chief then, ordered the armed forces to uproot terrorism in Sinai within three months.
Sisi said in late February that "Sinai comprehensive development operation has already started since 2014 and will continue until 2022."
