GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Egypt's army on Wednesday launched helicopter missile attacks in the Sinai Peninsula, killing as many as 20 suspected terrorists in a lawless region where a military crackdown on smuggling routes into the Gaza Strip is worsening an energy crisis and heightening violence in the area.
The airstrikes — the first in the Sinai since 1973 — were carried out as part of an offensive to restore control of the peninsula after the killings of 16 Egyptian soldiers Sunday at the Kerem Shalom crossing linking Egypt, Israel and Gaza.
