Missiles fired from Air Force helicopters reportedly left 20 fighters dead.

In response to last Sunday’s attack on the Gaza border that left 16 Egyptian policemen dead, the army on Tuesday August 7 launched deadly air strikes against suspected militant targets in the Sinai Peninsula. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the initial Sinai attack.

The attacks continued early in the morning of yesterday August 8. The BBC reported that at least 20 people were killed in Touma village on Tuesday August 7 after Air Force Apache helicopters in a night raid fired missiles. Sheikh Zuwaid located to the west of Touma was also hit.

Witnesses in Sheikh Zuwaid, about 10 km from the Gaza border, told Al Jazeera Television they saw two military jets fly over the area and afterwards heard sounds of explosions. Other witnesses in a nearby area said they saw three cars that were hit. An army commander in Sinai told Reuters news agency the military had succeeded in entering Touma, killed 20 terrorists and destroyed three armoured cars belonging to them. He said operations were still going on.

Egyptian State news agency, Mena said intensive security campaigns had been launched against what it described as terrorist hotbeds in southern al-Arish, Sheikh Zuwaid and Rafah. It said during the air raids, terrorists used rockets and rocket-propelled grenades to try to shoot down military aircraft, but failed. The BBC said the air raids came hours after security checkpoints were attacked in the main regional town of al-Arish, sparking clashes with security forces.

Six people were injured in the attacks late on Tuesday night, including two police officers, three army soldiers and one civilian, sources told Al Jazeera. The civilian is said to be in critical condition. A cement plant in Sinai that belongs to the military was also attacked by militants. Two suspected assailants were reportedly arrested.

Earlier on Tuesday, crowds of angry mourners wept at the military funeral in the capital, Cairo of the 16 border guards killed on Sunday August 5 in what was the deadliest assault in decades along Egypt's tense Sinai Peninsula border with Israel and Gaza. The funeral was marked by angry calls for vengeance. Lawlessness in the rugged Sinai desert region has spread since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak in an uprising in 2011 and the political instability that followed.