Egypt to combat militants in Sinai

EGYPT HAS significantly boosted its forces in the Sinai peninsula in an effort to combat militant Islamic groups that have deployed in the area since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February 2011.

The Egyptian move follows last Thursday’s rocket attack from the Sinai in which at least two projectiles landed in Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat. Israeli security officials confirmed the Egyptian deployment was co-ordinated with Jerusalem.

Israel captured the peninsula from Egypt during the 1967 Six- Day War, but withdrew its forces from the Sinai in 1979 after the two countries signed a peace treaty requiring the area to remain demilitarised.

However, last year Israel permitted the deployment of Egyptian troops following a dramatic rise in militant attacks and repeated sabotage of a pipeline that transfers Egyptian natural gas to both Israel and Jordan.

Seven Egyptian military battalions, comprising some 3,000 troops, together with 150 special forces police, will gradually be deployed to the Sinai in an effort to restore Egyptian control.

Armoured patrols and ambushes will be used to secure the gas pipeline, the strategic road between El Arish and Rafah and the approach routes to the Israeli border.

The presence of hundreds of armed militants in the Sinai has posed a serious challenge to the authorities in Cairo. According to Israeli security sources, some of the groups are linked to militants in Gaza, while others belong to world Jihad organisations connected to Iran and al-Qaeda.

Local Bedouin, often hostile to the Cairo authorities, have played an increasingly active role in militant operations. In recent months Egyptian soldiers and police stations, as well as international peacekeepers, have been attacked and foreign tourists have been kidnapped. Tourism, the mainstay of the local economy, has been badly hit.

Following last week’s attack on Eilat, Israel’s military intelligence chief, Maj Gen Aviv Kochavi, revealed that the Israel Defence Forces had thwarted 10 separate plots by militants to attack Israel from the Sinai in the past two months.

Israel called on Egypt to restore order in the Sinai and clamp down on militant activity, but Egyptian officials blamed Israel for the security vacuum, claiming the peace treaty prevented the deployment of combat troops.

Israel is building a 240km state-of-the-art fence along the Egyptian border to keep out militants and African migrants.