On Wednesday, two bombs were simultaneously exploded in Rafah, which straddles the border between Egypt and Gaza on the northwesternmost tip of the Sinai Peninsula. The first bomb brought down a two-story building which housed Egyptian military intelligence officers while the other hit an armored personnel carrier full of Egyptian soldiers at a checkpoint nearby. At least six people were killed.

“This wasn’t some random hit, this was a well-coordinated attack,” said a local government official who spoke to BuzzFeed by phone and asked to be quoted anonymously because he has been targeted in the past. “If the Egyptian army thought they had dealt with the insurgency in Sinai with their military campaign last month, this is a sign that the war has just begun.”

Last month, the Egyptian army launched an offensive in Sinai aimed at wiping out militant groups that have taken hold in the peninsula. Their campaign targeted a number of different groups, ranging from Islamists who support the Muslim Brotherhood and recently ousted president Mohammed Morsi, to hardline groups linked to al-Qaeda who have ties to Syria, Gaza, and Libya, as well as Bedouin tribesmen long discontented with the Egyptian regime.