Sinai car bomb underscores Egyptian army's tenuous grasp on security

A spate of militant attacks on Egyptian security forces and government officials could be a nascent insurgency.

|
AP/File
Egyptian army soldiers patrol in an armored vehicle backed by a helicopter gunship during a sweep through villages in Sheikh Zuweyid, northern Sinai, Egypt, May 21, 2013. Ten Egyptian soldiers were killed after a car bomb exploded next to their bus in the northern Sinai Peninsula, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013.

A daily roundup of global reports on security issues

Ten Egyptian soldiers were killed after a car bomb exploded next to their bus in the northern Sinai Peninsula today, underscoring the precarious security situation since former President Mohamed Morsi's ouster.

The number of attacks in the Sinai has increased since the July 3 military coup that overthrew Mr. Morsi, raising concerns that sporadic attacks will flare into a sustained insurgency.

At least 35 people were wounded in the attack, according to the Egyptian military. Egyptian army spokesman Col. Ahmed Quell Ali said the armed forces would “carry on the war against black terrorism...purge Egypt and secure its people from treacherous violence,” according to the Egytian El-Ahram newspaper.

More than 100 Egyptian security forces have been killed in the Sinai since Morsi’s disposal, according to the BBC. Militants have also targeted officials in the nation’s capital. Today’s bombing comes three days after gunmen assassinated a senior Egyptian security official in Cairo who was responsible for investigating Muslim extremists.

An extremist group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has also struck in the Sinai, claimed responsibility for that attack Tuesday, according to The New York Times.

The bombing was the deadliest since an Aug. 19 ambush in the Sinai that killed 25 Egyptian soldiers. The Monitor’s Christa Case Bryant, reporting after the August attack, explained the security stakes:

While details of today’s attack are still emerging, the overall challenge is abundantly clear. An uptick in militant attacks in Sinai since the military deposed President Mohamed Morsi on July 3 places additional strain on security forces already preoccupied with escalating political violence in Cairo and elsewhere, and has raised concerns that Sinai is on the road to becoming a magnet for global jihadi groups.

The violence is also the result of the “Egyptian military’s freer hand to crack down after deposing President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood last month,” the Monitor reports: 

The Army for the longest time has been holding back from interfering in Sinai,” says Sameeh, a high-ranking security official in northern Sinai who would give only his first name. “The elements in this area fear that they might lose this [strategic area] now that we have deployed more tanks and we’re putting more effort into clearing this area, so obviously they are going to fight back."

The Egyptian army is “fighting an insurgency using very forceful means,” Anna Boyd, the manager for country risk in the Middle East and Africa at London’s IHS Jane told Reuters. In the Sinai, the army has used “helicopters, tanks, and other heavy weaponry in its campaign,” Reuters writes.

The instability in the Sinai has also set neighbor Israel on edge, The Monitor reported in August:   

Since Mr. Morsi’s ouster on July 3, Egypt has launched a major military operation in Sinai, bringing in two additional battalions, which required Israel’s approval. Israel couldn’t be more eager to contain Sinai militancy after a series of attacks shattered decades of calm along the Israel-Egypt border, causing Israel to boost elite forces and accelerate construction of a 150-mile border fence. Israeli drones were rumored to be behind the deaths of four of at least 16 suspected militants killed in weekend airstrikes.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Sinai car bomb underscores Egyptian army's tenuous grasp on security
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/terrorism-security/2013/1120/Sinai-car-bomb-underscores-Egyptian-army-s-tenuous-grasp-on-security
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe