tracy, los angeles. >>> we have a rare view of crackdown of islamic militants in egypt.s is the first to go in the region since the violence began. >> reporter: good morning, journalists are strictly prohibited from traveling to sinai. so we went in under cover to see the situation for ourselves. an insurgency is raging in egypt. these propaganda videos by islamic extremists show one attack after another on egyptian security forces in sinai. we traveled through the desert along israel's border to the front line in what egypt calls its war on terror. we saw house upon house leveled. cars and tractors burned. evidence of a scorched policy by egyptian forces. the owners of this destroyed home were too scared to appear on camera. family members told us that tanks began firing artillery shells on the house early one morning. and you can see the scale of the destruction from those shells. and villagers here tell us that this wasn't the first time this happened. that more than 60 homes have been hit in this way. later, we met abu ayid. he told us his home was torched in the mil