5 Assailants in Sinai Border Attack Killed as Egypt Army Vows Revenge

Five gunmen who slew 16 Egyptian guards near the border with Israel before crossing into the Jewish state in an armored vehicle have been killed, an army spokesman said Monday.

"The bodies of the five gunmen have been found by the Israeli army," said the spokesman a day after the incident but did not give details.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Monday declared three days of national mourning after gunmen killed 16 guards near the Israeli border, state television reported.

"The president of the republic has announced three days of mourning after the terrorist attack," read a news banner on the television.

An Egyptian medical official said earlier the gunmen in Bedouin attire drove up in two vehicles and opened fire on the checkpoint near the Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom in Hebrew) border crossing and opened fire.

The Health Ministry said 16 soldiers and border guards were killed, while a security official said another seven were wounded.

Egypt's official MENA news agency said the gunmen were "jihadists" from inside the Islamist Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Speaking after an emergency meeting with military officials, the interior minister and the intelligence chief, Morsi vowed to retake control of the Sinai after the attack.

"The (security) forces will take full control of these regions," Morsi said in a television address.

He had given "clear instructions" that Egypt must take "full control of the Sinai", after the security situation deteriorated markedly following the ouster of longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak early last year.

Morsi, who took the oath of office on June 30 to become the country's first freely elected leader and its first head of state since Mubarak's overthrow, said those who committed the "cowardly" attack and those who worked with them would pay dearly.

"Those responsible for this crime will be hunted down and arrested," he said.

The Egyptian army promised to "avenge" the deaths of the border guards, in a statement issued by state news agency MENA.

"We swear in the name of God to avenge them," the agency cited a Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) statement as saying.

"Egyptians will not have to wait long before they see a reaction to this attack by terrorists," the statement added.

"Anyone liaising with these groups that have attacked our troops in the Sinai in recent months will pay dearly, be it inside Egypt or abroad," it added.