On Wednesday, Egypt's military detained a 12-year-old boy for allegedly monitoring police and army patrols in Sheikh Zuwayed, North Sinai, army spokesperson Ahmed Mohamed Ali said on his Facebook page
".Ayyoub Moussa Ayyad was monitoring patrols and was found to have attempted to detonate a bomb with a remote control," the colonel said in the statement
.Ali said extremist groups have recently started recruiting underage children to monitor the movements of security patrols, which he said was an act of child abuse
.Sinai Peninsula has been a stage for bloody attacks on police and military forces since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsy in July 2013
The army started military operations to rid the region of terrorism, but many residents have complained of collective punishment, including burning whole villages down and looting their belongings
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
