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Article snippet: CAIRO — The Egyptian authorities hanged 15 men on Tuesday for an attack in the Sinai Peninsula in 2013, the start of an Islamic insurgency that the military-dominated government has been battling ever since. The hangings, reported by state media, were the biggest mass execution in Egypt since six convicted jihadists were hanged in 2015. A military court found the men guilty on terrorism charges last month for an attack on a military checkpoint in which one army officer and eight soldiers were killed. That assault came amid a surge of violence that swept across Egypt after Egyptian security forces forcibly broke up two Islamist sit-ins in the capital, Cairo, killing over 800 people. The military had seized power six weeks earlier, overthrowing a democratically elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. The executions on Tuesday raise the number of people put to death since the military took over to 23. Rights activists and Islamists said Tuesday that they feared the latest executions would drive more young Egyptians into the arms of the Islamic State, also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh. “This is the new wave of oppression that we have been expecting all year,” said Ezzat Ghoniem, a lawyer who defends many Muslim Brotherhood members. “These executions will only push the thousands of young people in prison into the arms of Daesh.” The number of death sentences handed down by Egyptian courts appears to have risen significantly this year... Link to the full article to read more