WATCH: ISIS releases dramatic footage of attack on Egyptian naval vessel
The Egyptian military reported that a coastguard launch had exchanged shots with "terrorist elements," causing the vessel to catch fire.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERSUpdated: JULY 19, 2015 11:05ISIS released video of attack that kills five members of Egypt's security forces.
ISIS has released dramatic footage of Thursday's attack on an Egyptian naval vessel in the Mediterranean sea, near the coast of Israel and the Gaza strip.The Egyptian military reported that a coastguard launch had exchanged shots with "terrorist elements," causing the vessel to catch fire, however there were no casualties.Such incidents at sea are rare, though Egypt is battling an increasingly brazen Islamist insurgency in the peninsula that lies between Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal. ISIS also claimed responsibility for the Saturday attack on an Egyptian military checkpoint in North Sinai, that left five members of the security forces dead.The deaths occurred when several mortar rounds hit two checkpoints, Reuters reported.North Sinai is the epicenter of an insurgency waged by militants who support Islamic State, the ultra-hardline Sunni group which controls large parts of Iraq and Syria and has a presence in Egypt's neighbor Libya.Egypt's state news agency MENA said the attack by terrorists -- the term the government uses to describe militants -- involved rockets and shooting and that clashes were continuing.President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says militants are an existential threat to Egypt, other Arab states and the West.