Egypt: Army Sweep in the Sinai

Military sources said that 13 jihadi militants were killed in an air strike in northern Sinai. They said that the Air Force launched a series of strikes against militants around the city of el-Arish in northern Sinai, targeting houses, shops, vehicles and other gathering points. The army moved in later to targets near Sheikh Zuweyid and picked up four suspects, two of them Palestinians.

The strikes were in response to the downing of a military helicopter by the Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem) which has said it was behind a spate of attacks on security targets.

Militants have increased their attacks since Morsi was ousted as president in July. The group also said it had carried out the attack last month on the gas export pipeline to Jordan as part of a campaign to "target the regime's economic interests".

The Egyptian authorities have in effect cited the attacks as evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organisation - without producing evidence that the Brotherhood is behind the attacks. Once again, clashes broke out after Friday prayers between security forces and Brotherhood supporters in Cairo and Alexandria.

A car bomb targeting a bus carrying Egyptian soldiers wounded three civilians near Rafah in the Sinai, security officials said.

A police conscript was killed by unidentified gunmen in Sharqiya in the Nile Delta. Sherif Bayoumi, 30, and another conscript, El-Tablawi Mousa, 31, were shot at by hooded men riding a motorcycle. Bayoumi died soon after being transferred to hospital, while Mousa is in critical condition. Both victims sustained gunshot wounds to the head, reported Al-Ahram's Arabic website.

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

More blood flowed into the sands of the Sinai

More blood flowed into the sands of the Sinai as the army stepped up its campaign to eradicate the different jihadist groups that have established bases or a presence there.

 

Six soldiers were killed on 11 September in two car-bomb explosions near military units in Rafah in North Sinai Peninsula, close to the border with Gaza.

 

Ali Azzazi, head of criminal investigations in North Sinai, and the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) called the attacks suicide car bombings. MENA said at least 17 people, including seven civilians, were injured, adding that one of the blasts destroyed the main gate of the intelligence building and damaged outside walls.

 

The attacks demonstrate that jihadist groups are prepared to take the offensive themselves.

 

The latest military operation began two days after the Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim survived an assassination attempt in Cairo on 5 September. It was, however, 24 hours before news agencies received a statement purporting to come from an extremist group based in the peninsula which said that it had been behind the attempt on the minister.

 

A car bomb exploded near the minister's convoy as he was leaving home for work on 5 September in Nasr City. The suicide bomber and at least one passer-by were killed and more than a score injured. The minister was unscathed in his armoured limousine.

 

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

 

© 2013 Menas Associates

Development of Sinai tourism creates frictions with indigenous tribes

Sinai has always been different from the rest of Egypt. It was not included in Herodotus' celebrated but still apt description of Egypt as the gift of the Nile. It is the bridge between Asia and Africa, the buffer fought over by conquering armies down the centuries. In recent years, the Egyptians have used it as the living emblem of what can be achieved through peaceful negotiation. Egypt recovered the Sinai from Israel as a result of its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

For Hosni Mubarak, hosting the peace talks and previous major international get-togethers at Sharm el Sheikh helps draw attention to the benefits of jaw-jaw over war-war. Besides which, of course, Sharm el Sheikh is a very pleasant resort and being away from centres of population, it is easier to provide an appropriate level of security there.

However, the rapid development of the tourist industry in the Sinai, often through companies controlled by former regime stalwarts in the military and security establishment, has created frictions with the indigenous tribes. These look down with traditional disdain on the settled peoples of the Nile Valley. But they also resent the way that Egyptians have swamped the area with people from outside the peninsula. Since time immemorial, the Bedouin have survived by trafficking arms, cigarettes, drugs and, increasingly, people through the desert and mountainous region they know so well. Their resentment at the heavy-handed punishments given to miscreants has increased their sense of grievance against a central authority which they scarcely recognise and which they feel has done very little for them.

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

© 2010 Menas Associates