Helicopter crash in Sinai: eight dead, including a French

Eight members of the Multinational Observer Force (FMO) in the Egyptian Sinai, including six Americans, a French and a Czech were killed Thursday in the crash of their helicopter, according to a statement from this force.

An American member of the force responsible for monitoring the peace between Israel and Egypt survived the crash and was evacuated for treatment, the statement said, which said the accident took place during a "routine mission near Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt ".

An investigation launched

"The FMO will conduct an investigation to determine the cause of the accident," the statement continued, adding that "at this point there is no information indicating that the crash was not a accident".

FMO refers to "cooperation efforts between Egypt and Israel" launched following the crash.

The Israeli military has "offered to provide immediate medical aid," said spokesperson Jonathan Conricus.

An army helicopter "with elite soldiers specializing in rescue was dispatched to Ramon airport (southern Israel)," he added.

Three years after the signing of their peace treaty and after the UN announced that it would not provide peacekeepers for Sinai, Egypt and Israel, with the active support of the United States, had established this force deployed in 1982, as an independent international peacekeeping organization.

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1,100 soldiers in the FMO

It currently has just over 1,100 soldiers of different nationalities - including Australia, the United States, Canada and France.

Sinai had been the scene of clashes between the Hebrew state and Egypt before the two countries signed peace in 1979. Today, various armed groups are rife in the peninsula, including the local branch of the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS).

Egyptian security forces are fighting an Islamist insurgency that has hardened in northeast Sinai.

In February 2018, the Egyptian authorities launched a large-scale operation against Islamist militants, mainly in northern Sinai, not far from Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Since the start of this operation, around 930 suspected Islamist fighters have been killed along with dozens of security personnel, according to Egyptian military data.