Islamist Gunmen Kill 15 Egyptian Policemen

At least 15 policemen have been killed and seven wounded in an armed attack on a police station in North Sinai on the border between Egypt and Israel, medical and security sources said. Egyptian state television reported that an Islamist militant group was behind the attack.

After the gunfight, the militants seized two military vehicles to attack a crossing point into Israel, the deadliest incident in Egypt's tense Sinai border region in decades.

Israeli aircraft destroyed one of the armoured vehicles and four of the gunmen were killed.

The other exploded as the militants tried to storm the Israeli border at the Kermes Shalom crossing into southern Gaza, a military zone where the Israeli, Egyptian and Gaza borders intersect, an Israeli spokesman said.

Israel's defence minister Ehud Barak called for "determined Egyptian action" to "prevent terror in Sinai".

Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi vowed he would retake control of the Sinai after the attack. (...)