CAIRO (AP) " Officials and residents say the Egyptian army is bulldozing homes and olive groves to build a buffer zone around the airport in its troubled North Sinai Province.

The province is where Islamic State group militants targeted the defense and interior ministers in December.

The operation will displace thousands, according to local residents who have been told they will be removed from at least a dozen hamlets around el-Arish airport. They say they are being moved to nearby cities where the government has promised them compensation.

The new fortifications underline how the army is digging in for a longer-term insurgency that shows no sign of abating, despite years of fighting in which hundreds of soldiers have been killed.