U.S. personnel helping Egypt find Sinai tunnels

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - U.S. Department of Defense personnel are helping Egyptian security forces look for tunnels dug by smugglers under the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, the U.S. embassy in Cairo said on Monday.

"There is a team here in Egypt that's working with their Egyptian counterparts on counter-tunneling," embassy spokesman Robert Greenan said.

Security sources in Sinai said earlier on Monday that a team of at least 14 Americans arrived in the area on Tuesday and was expected to spend between five and 15 days using electronic equipment to find the tunnels. They are also training Egyptians to use the equipment, they added.

Smugglers have dug dozens of tunnels to move people and contraband, including arms and ammunition, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas.

One security source said this was the first time American personnel had been directly involved in efforts to crack down on the smuggling.

Israel and the United States have been pressing Egypt to seal the tunnels to prevent militants, especially the Hamas Islamists, from stockpiling weapons.

Israel insists that any truce with Gaza must include a crackdown on the smuggling. A Hamas delegation is in Cairo to meet Egyptian officials mediating such a truce.

Egypt has said the amount of weapons, ammunition and drugs smuggled through the tunnels has fallen since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip a year ago.

(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed, writing by Aziz El-Kaissouni)