Egypt vowed on Sunday to punish the attackers who killed 21 border guards in its western desert near the frontier with Libya.

Militants firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns attacked a checkpoint, 630 kilometers west of Cairo, on Saturday, killing 21 soldiers and wounding another four.

The military said the soldiers were killed when an RPG set off an explosion in an ammunition depot at the El-Farafrah border security post.

Egypt's presidency said "the heinous crime that took these brave souls and spilled their blood will not go unanswered".

"Terrorism will be uprooted from every part of Egypt. All those responsible for perpetrating these acts and acting outside of the law will receive their rightful punishment," it said.

Egypt authorities declared a three-day period of mourning from Sunday.

The attack followed repeated warnings by officials of a possible spillover of violence from across the border with Libya, where relentless bloodshed has sparked fears of all-out civil war.

The attack was the second in as many months on the same post, where a border guards company is based. Coming just over a month after el-Sissi took office, the attack is the worst single loss for military troops in recent history.

It is also the second brazen attack on troops in recent years during the holy month of Ramadan, when observant Muslims fast from dawn to sundown. In 2012, gunmen attacked a checkpoint near Egypt's border with Gaza and Israel, killing 16 soldiers.

The attack on Saturday came less than an hour before sundown.

El-Sissi, the former military chief, had vowed to fight terrorism, saying militant groups acting across borders were a threat not only to Egypt, but the region and the world.

Libya has been awash with weapons and gripped by unrest since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled dictator Muamar Gadhafi, with rival militias that ousted him vying for control.

Egypt's porous western border with Libya stretches for more than 1,000 km.

And since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Egypt has been rocked by deadly bombings and shootings.

Most of the assaults have been claimed by jihadists amid a bloody crackdown by the authorities on his supporters.

A police crackdown on Morsi supporters has left more than 1,400 people dead in street clashes, upward of 15,000 jailed and some 200 sentenced to death.

Morsi himself as well as several other senior leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood movement have been put on trial.

AFP - AP

(China Daily 07/21/2014 page12)