* Islamists kill 15 in attack on Egyptian police station
* Two vehicles driven in direction of border with Israel
* Incident will test Egypt's relations with Israel
* Egyptian president calls military council
CAIRO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Islamist gunmen killed at least 15
Egyptian policemen and seized an army tank in an assault on a
Sinai police station near the border with Israel on Sunday, the
deadliest attack in the region in at least two decades.
The attack, which saw Israeli aircraft destroy a vehicle
used by the gunmen to try to storm the fortified border, was the
first major security emergency for Egyptian President Mohamed
Mursi, who summoned his military council.
Egyptian state television and Israeli military officials
said an Islamist militant group was responsible for the assault.
Israel has previously accused Palestinian militants in Gaza
of involvement in militant activity in Sinai, where insecurity
has spread since the U.S.-aligned Egyptian president, Hosni
Mubarak, was toppled by a citizen revolt last year.
Sunday's attack will force Egypt and Israel to engage
at a time when both are still in the process of recalibrating
their relationship after Mursi, an Islamist, assumed office at
the end of June. It may also test Egypt's relationship with
Hamas, the rulers of the Gaza Strip, if it is shown that
Palestinian gunmen were involved.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Thanks to
the determined action of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) and the
Shin Bet (internal security agency), a big attack against
Israeli civilians was prevented."
The Egyptian state news agency quoted a security official as
saying the attack was carried out by militants who infiltrated
from Gaza via a tunnel as well as by other militants from two
regions in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak called for "determined
Egyptian action" to "prevent terror in Sinai".
"Elements of a jihad organisation drove SUVs into one of the
checkpoints south of the Rafah border," Egyptian state
television said. It said 15 security forces personnel had been
killed and at least 7 wounded.
It was not clear how many attackers were involved.
"There was an exchange of fire with the attackers who seized
an army tank and used it to make a second attack in Rafah," the
Egyptian television report said.
Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said gunmen
had seized two vehicles. One exploded and the second was
destroyed by Israeli aircraft.
"As of now, we know of no terrorists still in the area.
There are some Israeli communities nearby, and residents have
been asked to stay in their homes."
An Egyptian security source said the Rafah border crossing
with Gaza had been closed "indefinitely" after the attack.
FORTIFIED BORDER TRIANGLE
In a statement, a spokesman for Netanyahu said: "The
terrorists who killed the Egyptian security men seized two
Egyptian military vehicles and tried to storm the Israeli
border."
He said the vehicle that tried to breach the border was
destroyed at the Kerem Shalom crossing into the southern Gaza
Strip, a military zone where the borders of Israel, Egypt and
Gaza intersect.
A television journalist based in North Sinai said the area
was sealed off by Egyptian security forces, who had blocked the
road from the main town of al-Arish in the direction of the Gaza
border crossing at Rafah.
Earlier on Sunday, an Israeli air strike killed a
Palestinian gunman from a radical Islamist group and wounded
another as they rode a motorbike in southern Gaza near the
Egyptian border.
It was not immediately possible to confirm whether the
incidents were linked.
Gaza is governed by Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist movement
which, while also hostile to the Jewish state, is considered too
moderate by many Salafis and has at times clashed with them
during law and order drives.
Hamas condemned the attack and closed the tunnels to Egypt
through which it smuggles goods to avoid an Israeli-Egyptian
blockade. Residents said the atmosphere was tense.