By Trend

Turkey condemned the attack on a water pumping station east of the Suez Canal in Egypt on May 7, killing 11 soldiers and injuring five, Trend reports citing Hurriyet Daily News.

In a written statement on May 8, the Foreign Ministry extended its condolences to the families of people who lost their lives and the Egyptian state and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

Eleven Egyptian soldiers were killed attempting to thwart a “terrorist” attack on the Suez Canal zone abutting the Sinai Peninsula, a hotbed of jihadist activity, the Egyptian army said. It was the heaviest loss of life the army had suffered in years in its long-running campaign in and around the Sinai against militants loyal to the ISIL group.

Five soldiers were also wounded in the firefight on the eastern bank of the canal, the army said, adding security forces were “continuing to chase the terrorists and surround them in an isolated area of the Sinai.”

“These terrorist operations will not defeat the determination of the country and the army to continue uprooting terrorism,” President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi pledged on Facebook.