Egyptian-Chinese Naval forces began on Wednesday a maritime exercise within the boundaries of the northern maritime fleet in the Mediterranean sea. The training features the participation of several Egyptian warships and the Chinese destroyer XIAN-153, said military spokesperson Tamer al-Refeai.

Egypt’s army spokesperson Tamer El Refa’ai said on Tuesday that Egyptian a group of airborne forces left the country to partake in a joint military exercise that will take place in Russia on Tuesday, with the participation of military forces from Russia and Belarus.

Twenty-four-year old Raghad Mohamed was killed on Saturday at an Egyptian army checkpoint whilst walking in the city of Al-Arish with her mother, Al Jazeera Mubasher has reported. Raghad was killed just days before she was due to get married.

Egyptian security forces have killed 11 suspected militants in a gun battle during a raid on their hideout in Al-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province, the ministry of interior said on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

Six years ago, Egyptian security forces killed hundreds of supporters of Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president, in what was one of the deadliest days for demonstrations in Egypt‘s modern history.

Throughout the last week in North Sinai, Province of Sinai, an Islamic State affiliate in the peninsula, claimed responsibility for the assassination of two brothers near Rafah and the kidnapping of another man in Bir al-Abd. Meanwhile, staunch security measures continue in other cities across the region.

The President of Egypt has issued a resolution allocating 47 state-owned islands in the Red Sea to the army, stating that the land is of strategic military importance.

The day after a set of controversial constitutional amendments were approved in a national referendum in April, the Minister of Justice sent three laws to the heads of Egypt’s judicial bodies.

Residents of el-Arish, the capital of northern Sinai governorate, have been exposed to ongoing attempts by the Egyptian authorities to expel them from their areas, where clashes and armed conflicts have been taking place between the Egyptian army and the Islamic State.

Last month the Egyptian government demolished Bedouin-owned houses in Tarabin village in South Sinai on the grounds that they were not “legally” owned.