After fleeing in fear for their lives when Daesh occupied their villages in North Sinai, some residents have returned, but only to face a new danger: explosives that the militants left in the homes behind them.

"I lost my sister-in-law and her nine-month-old baby, due to the explosion of a bomb planted inside the house," said a young man from the village of Aqtiyah, who preferred not to be named.

About 15 people have been killed by explosive devices since mid-October in the villages surrounding Bir al-Abed, a town located on the Mediterranean coast in the Sinai Peninsula in northeastern Egypt, according to Egyptian security sources.

These bombs raise the concern of nearly a thousand residents of those villages, who returned to their homes after leaving them for three months, during which the Egyptian army was continuing its battle in the region against Daesh.

For the past few years, the Egyptian army and police forces have been engaged in violent confrontations against Daesh, which operates through groups and local elements.

The militants stepped up their operations in the region after the army in 2013 ousted the late Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

In February 2018, the army and police forces launched a large-scale operation against Daesh elements at the national level, but it focused on the Sinai Peninsula.

However, the group continued its attacks on security forces, civilians, and strategic gas pipelines.

Another young man from Aqtiyah said by phone to France Press, "We were surprised upon our return to our homes to see that [the militants] had resided in them and used them as hideouts to escape from the army and planted bombs in them."

"They stole even our livestock," he says.

- Bombshell toys -

The town of Bir al-Abed can be reached from the south through the desert.

The town witnessed the bloodiest attacks in modern Egyptian history when more than 300 people who were performing Friday prayers in a mosque were killed in an attack with bombs and automatic weapons. The attackers carried flags similar to those raised by Daesh. However, the latter did not claim responsibility for the attack, nor did any other party.

According to US State Department estimates, Daesh carried out 137 attacks with IEDs last year in Egypt, in addition to "almost weekly attacks on fortified government sites."

Observers say Daesh's resort to planting bombs in homes is a tactic that reflects the shift to a new strategy used by extremist Islamists in other countries.

"The planting of bombs in North Sinai is a repetition of ISIS operations in Iraq and Syria," said Nadia Al-Dayel, head of the Washington think tank Kritika, a specialist in Daesh affairs.

She adds that Daesh members have devoted "a lot of time and resources to booby-traps doors, home furniture, household appliances, and even children's toys."

It believes that "the tactic of targeting civilians will likely continue and will be used by other violent organizations."

In the city of Baiji, north of Baghdad, near Mosul, which was considered the fortress of Daesh before its defeat in Iraq, militants used to prepare explosives for use in simple household appliances and appliances, such as refrigerators, toys for children and even copies of the Qur’an, according to witnesses and officials.

Civilians in northern Iraq told AFP last year that they were afraid to return to their homes because of bombs planted in unexpected places.

In Syria, during their battle in their last stronghold in the town of Al-Baghouz, the militants placed booby-traps under carpets and refrigerators, and some of the explosives were shaped like rocks.

In Raqqa, the former stronghold of the extremist group in northern Syria, the rubble served as a decoy for planting IEDs to slow the march of the Kurdish fighters who had driven the militants out of the area.

About a thousand people suspected of belonging to Daesh, in addition to dozens of security forces and army members, have been killed in North and Central Sinai since the start of the military operation in 2018, according to official figures.

There is no independent documented report of operations in North Sinai, an area that is difficult for journalists to reach.

- They won't go away -

Last year, Human Rights Watch accused the Egyptian forces and Daesh of committing "war crimes" in North Sinai, a report the authorities rejected.

Residents told France Press that the main threat remains Daesh and its attacks.

Egyptian officials did not respond to a request for comment about the planted bombs that kill civilians.

One resident, who also requested anonymity, says that the North Sinai Governor's office opened schools to shelter civilians after Daesh raided five villages in the vicinity of Bir al-Abd.

This attack followed a bloody counterterrorism operation in July.

Al-Dale believes that, after the defeat of Daesh in Iraq and Syria, Sinai has provided him with fertile ground for expansion.

"Even with its limited resources, the Islamic State has proven to be a constant threat in Sinai," she says. "They will not go away in the near term," she asserts.