CAIRO, Mar 21 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt's interior minister said that the perpetrators of an attack that killed 15 policemen in North Sinai's Arish "will not get away with it", according to a statement published on the ministry's official Facebook page on Monday.

Magdy Abdel Ghaffar's remarks came in a meeting held with other ministry officials to discuss ways to strengthen security measures in North Sinai, on the heels of a mortar attack on Arish's Safa checkpoint on Saturday.

North Sinai has been the epicenter of insurgency since the military ouster of then-President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, after mass protests against his rule. The attacks mostly target security personnel and apparatuses.  

Separately, the Egyptian military spokesman Mohamed Samir told the state-run al-Ahram newspaper in an interview published on Monday that the armed forces are capable of facing all challenges and "cleansing" North Sinai, but they are keen on the lives of innocent people residing in the area.

According to separate statements by the armed forces over the past year alone, hundreds of suspected militants have been killed and hundreds more arrested in multiple security campaigns launched by the army.

Aswat Masriya could not independently verify the content of those statements. Anti-terrorism legislation imposes heavy fines on news organisations that contradict official statements.