Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Tuesday issued a decree prolonging a nationwide state of emergency for another three months starting on January 13.
The decree comes as an Islamic State (IS) insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula has increasingly crept into other parts of the country, including the capital, Cairo.
The general-turned-president has vowed to crush Islamist militants, who have killed hundreds of civilians and security forces since the army toppled president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
Read more: The long record of terror on the Sinai Peninsula
Many militant attacks have targeted Coptic Christians.
On Friday, nine people were killed when militants attacked a Coptic church and a nearby store.
Another high-profile rocket attack on December 19 claimed by IS damaged a helicopter at the Arish airport in northern Sinai during a visit by the defense and interior ministers.
On November 24, suspected IS militants killed some 300 worshipers at a mosque near Arish in the deadliest terror attack on civilians in Egyptian history.
Spree of executions
Separately on Tuesday, four Islamist militants were executed after being sentenced to death by a military court over a 2015 bombing north of Cairo that killed three military cadets.
The executions came just days after 15 militants were hanged having been convicted of attacking a military checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula in 2013 that killed nine soldiers.
Rights groups have questioned the legal processes that led to hundreds of Islamists being sentenced to death, although not all have been executed and some have appealed the rulings and won retrials.
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Egypt's deadliest terror attacks
1997 Luxor massacre
Sixty-two tourists were killed at Egypt's Deir el-Bahri archaeological site in Luxor. Six assailants, thought to have been linked to al-Qaida, disguised themselves as members of the security forces and descended on the temple armed with automatic machine guns and knives. Egyptian tourist police and military forces eventually stopped the attackers, who were either killed or committed suicide.
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Egypt's deadliest terror attacks
2004 Sinai bombings
A series of bomb attacks targeting tourists in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula killed 34 people and injured 171. Most of the casualties were killed after a truck drove into the lobby of the Taba Hilton. Two more bombs went off at campsites some 50 kilometers away, killing a handful of people. Roughly half the casualties were foreigners, including 12 Israelis.
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Egypt's deadliest terror attacks
2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks
The attack in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh was carried out on Egypt's Revolution Day and for a decade remained the worst Islamist attack in Egypt's history. A series of bombs planted close to bars and restaurants, as well as by a hotel, killed 88 people and injured 150. The majority of victims were locals, although a number of tourists also died, including 11 British nationals.
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Egypt's deadliest terror attacks
2006 Dahab bombings
The attack on the the Egyptian resort city of Dahab marked the third consecutive year that tourist resorts had been targeted. A series of blasts in a restaurant, a café and a market killed at least 23 people, most of whom were local, and wounded around 80. Egyptian officials maintain that the attacks were carried out by the Islamist cell known as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, a forerunner of "IS."
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Egypt's deadliest terror attacks
2015 Metrojet Flight 9268 disaster
All 224 mostly Russian passengers were killed when Metrojet Flight 9268 suddenly dropped out of the sky over the Egypt's Sinai peninsula, shortly after having taken off from Sharm el-Sheikh international airport. Authorities agree that it appeared a bomb had been snuck on board. The so-called "Islamic State" jihadi group claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Egypt's deadliest terror attacks
2016 Attacks on Egypt's Coptic Christian minorities
While Egypt's Coptic Christians have for decades been targeted by Islamists, deadly attacks on Coptic churches have increased dramatically in recent months. At least 102 Egyptian Christians have been killed in four separate attacks since December 2016.
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Egypt's deadliest terror attacks
2017 Coptic church and Al-Rawda mosque bombings
On April 9, 2017, the Coptic church faith followers encountered devastating twin blasts in Tanta and Alexandria as they celebrated Palm Sunday, killing 28 and 17 people respectively. On November 24, 2017, a bomb went off outside of Al-Rawda mosque in the city of Al-Arish in the northern Sinai Peninsula, which claimed the lives of more than 300 people and injured 109 others.
Author: David Martin
cw/tj (AP, dpa, Reuters)
