The Egyptian military announced on Tuesday that its forces killed three extremists in Sinai as part of its ongoing Sinai 2018 campaign to crackdown on terrorists in the region. More than 200 extremists and at least 35 soldiers have been killed since Egypt launched the operation to rid the peninsula of militants in February, according to the military. Operations carried out in recent days resulted in "the elimination of three takfiris", the army said. They also led to the "destruction of a number of tunnels in the city of Rafah in northern Sinai", it said in a statement. "A conscript was wounded in clashes with terrorists" and "two civilians died as a result an explosion from a device targeting forces conducting raids", it added. The Rafah border crossing is the only entrance to the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel, and Egypts sole frontier with the Palestinian enclave has remained largely closed since 2013. Egyptian authorities believe these tunnels are used by jihadists to enter North Sinai. Extremists launched an insurgency in Sinai after the overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.