CAIRO — Militants fired a barrage of rockets and set off a car bomb Thursday killing at least 30 people, mostly soldiers, in Egypt's North Sinai province, where security forces are battling a raging insurgency. The deadly assaults were swiftly claimed by the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group that has captured chunks of territory in Syria and Iraq. Jihadists have regularly attacked security forces in the Sinai Peninsula since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in July 2013. The main focus of Thursday's attacks was El-Arish, the provincial capital, where a military base, a police headquarters, a residential complex for army and police officers and several army checkpoints were targeted in the biggest such simultaneous assaults since October, officials said. — AP
