By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – The Egyptian military has announced a full-scale military assault on militant groups in the Sinai Peninsula in response to militant attacks against the Egyptian state.

 

Since July of this year, militant Islamist groups in Sinai have killed dozens of Egyptian officials in an insurgency sparked frustrations over the military coup that took Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi out of power, and in response to the military government’s treatment of pro-Morsi civilians and Islamist party members, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt’s judiciary has taken steps to declare an illegal organization returning the democratically elected former president’s party to the status it had under the Mubarak regime.

The military campaign comes in direct response to a failed assassination attempt carried out against an Egyptian government official last week. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a militant group based in the Sinai Peninsula whose name translates to “Supporters of Jerusalem”, has claimed responsibility for an attack last Thursday that targeted the Egyptian Interior Minister. The group promised more attacks in retaliation for the military government’s crackdown on Egypt’s Islamists.

The group issued a statement on its website that said, “God allowed us to break the security system of the minister of interior … through a suicide operation committed by one of Egypt’s lions that made the interior butcher see death with his eyes, and what is to come will be worse.”

Last week’s attack was carried out in broad daylight by a suicide bomber who detonated himself in a car next to Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim’s convoy as the minister left his home in Cairo. Two people were killed, including an unrelated passer-by, in the attack and 20 more were injured.

In response to the attack, the Egyptian military deployed several helicopters to the region on Saturday. The Egyptian military helicopters conducted several air strikes in the Sinai targeting the militants.

Israel has expressed support for the military campaign. Amos Gilad, a senior official in Israel’s defence ministry, who called the assault “impressive,” said in a speech that the airstrikes represent Egypt’s first ever serious counter-terrorism campaign in the Sinai region which borders the Jewish state. He said, “For the first time, we see a determined struggle against terrorism in Egypt’s Sinai, unrelated to the interests of Israel.”

Communications were jammed and internet access was blocked in the Sinai region on Monday as the Egyptian military resumed attacks against the militant groups in the region. On Monday, the military attacked the southern Sinai town of Rafah, which is allegedly a militant hideout.

So far, twenty people have been killed, and twenty more have been captured, since the Egyptian military began the operation. Since the operation began, people have begun fleeing villages in the region, heading to coastal villages and attempting to enter the Gaza strip though underground tunnels.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Egyptian Tanks, Helicopters Push Through Sinai – 9 September 2013

Al Jazeera – Egypt Military Strike Rebels In Sinai – 9 September 2013

Al Jazeera – Sinai Group Claims Attack On Egypt Minister – 9 September 2013

The Guardian – Egypt Announces Full-Scale Assault on Sinai Militants – 9 September 2013