President El-Sisi's War against Terrorism

Egyptian security forces have been battling an entrenched Islamist insurgency for several years in North Sinai. Col. (res.) Dr. Shaul Shay discusses El-Sisi's response to the latest attacks in the Egyptian Peninsula

President El-Sisi's War against Terrorism

Photo: AP

Islamic militants have conducted two separate attacks on two North Sinai checkpoints early morning on January 9, 2017. Nine people were killed and 22 others injured. The attacks came only a few days after the Egyptian army said it had foiled a plot by militants to attack several North Sinai checkpoints.

Few hours after the terror attacks in North Sinai in a phone interview with ONTV channel, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said that the cost of fighting terrorism had been “huge” over the last three-and-a-half years, not only in “sacrifices made through the blood of our children but also in the monetary cost.” El-Sisi said there are currently 41 army battalions of up to 25,000 personnel fighting in North Sinai alongside the police, which he says takes heavy resources to maintain.

"The fight against terrorism does not end in one or two days, and [we] are committing a lot of [our] resources to just being ready [for a possible terrorist attack],” he said. The president also stressed that the army is careful to ensure there are no civilian casualties in its anti-terror operations in Sinai.

The president also said that Egypt is facing terrorism alone on behalf of the entire world, and that when “the entire region has been moving in a direction in accordance with a plot being executed, only Egyptians decided to move in a different direction."

"In Sinai, you are talking about a plot and resources being [provided to militants by] certain countries and apparatuses. These are whom I refer to as the people of evil,” El-Sisi said, adding that over the last three months, millions of dollars and Egyptian pounds, as well as 1,000 tons of explosives, were confiscated from hideouts in North Sinai. However, the president declined to name any specific countries that might be behind this "plot."

The Attack on El-Matafe and El-Masaeed Checkpoints

A suicide bomber driving a garbage truck packed with explosives rammed his vehicle into an Egyptian security checkpoint outside a police building at El-Matafe checkpoint in Al-Arish city in northern Sinai. The garbage truck had been stolen days earlier from the municipality of el-Arish. The car bomb was followed by around 20 militants who tried to storm the checkpoint using rocket-propelled grenades (RPG). Egyptian forces were able to "fight off the terrorist attack," killing five militants and injuring three others and were able to detonate an improvised explosive device planted by the militants.

In a separate attack, another terrorist group targeted El-Masaeed checkpoint on Egypt's Ring Road, killing a police conscript during an exchange of fire with security forces.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks on North Sinai police checkpoints. “Twenty-five policemen were killed on Monday in a surprise attack launched by the Islamic State’s fighters on El-Matafe checkpoint in El-Masaeed neighborhood west of Al-Arish in North Sinai,” the group’s Amaq news agency said in a statement. The Amaq statement said that a car rigged with a bomb exploded at one of the checkpoints, after which Islamic State group gunmen killed the policemen who survived the explosion. The group also claimed that it destroyed two armored police vehicles.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) denounced the attack and sent its condolences to the Egyptian government and the families of the victims. The UNSC urged states to work in cooperation with relevant authorities to bring those responsible for terrorist acts to justice.

US National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson Ned Price affirmed his country remains firmly committed to Egypt's security and will continue to support the Government of Egypt as it contends with ongoing threats from terrorist groups in the Sinai and elsewhere.

A statement from the European Union described the attack as a "catastrophic reminder" of the imminent terrorist threat against Egypt and expressed the organization's condolences to the families of the victims.

Summary

The Egyptian army and police have been battling an entrenched Islamist insurgency for several years in North Sinai. Egypt’s ongoing fight against terrorism in Sinai is taking a heavy toll on human life and the state’s resources. The insurgency in Sinai has escalated after the army ousted former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Hundreds of civilians, soldiers and policemen have been killed or injured since.

Most of the attacks have been claimed by Sinai-based group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in November 2014. Most of the attacks have taken place in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Egypt’s army launched a new security campaign in October 2016 against Islamist militants in North Sinai. In mid-October, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi extended a state of emergency in designated areas of the North Sinai governorate for three months, starting 31 October 2016. A state of emergency was originally declared in certain areas of the restive province in August 2013, and has been consecutively renewed ever since.

Egyptian security forces have so far killed over 1,200 militants in Sinai as part of the country's "war on terrorism," but despite the official narrative that claims the area is witnessing stability and that development projects are being worked on, casualties among security personnel continue on an almost weekly basis.