CAIRO, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian air forces destroyed 10 vehicles loaded with arms attempting to infiltrate into Egypt through its western borders with eastern Libya, the Egyptian military spokesman said in a statement on Saturday.
"The forces detected and pursued 10 four-by-four vehicles loaded with amounts of weapons, ammunition and smuggled material at the western borderline," said military spokesman Tamer al-Refaay, adding "the air forces dealt with them, destroyed them all and killed the terrorist elements therein."
Since May, the Egyptian air force has destroyed at least 100 vehicles loaded with arms while attempting to cross the Egyptian-Libyan border.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi recently said that Egypt destroyed 1,200 vehicles loaded with arms, ammunition and fighters at borders with Libya over the past 30 months.
Egypt is concerned about its 1,200 km western border with eastern Libya that has been a smuggling destination of arms and militants over the past few years.
Recent two-day confrontations between security forces and terrorists that started on October 20 left 16 policemen dead and 13 wounded in the Western Desert region near Al-Wahat highway on the outskirts of Giza, south of the capital Cairo.
Later military air raids on a nearby site, a mountainous area in western Fayoum province south of Cairo, killed a large number of the terrorists involved in the anti-police attack. Sisi revealed Wednesday that only one of them was caught alive and he was not Egyptian, noting all other 13 terrorists were killed.
Egypt's Western Desert also witnessed a terrorist attack that killed at least 21 soldiers in July 2014. In February 2015, IS militants released a video showing the beheading of 20 Egyptians near the Libyan chaotic city of Sirte.
The country has been working with Libya's neighboring states to reach a political settlement in Libya, which is torn by a civil war and run by two rival administrations, one in the capital Tripoli northwestern the country and the other in Tobruk city in the northeast.
Egypt sees Libya's stability necessary for maintaining its own national security, securing its western border and uprooting the cross-border terrorism.
