Egypt hits Sinai targets, killing 16 and arresting dozens

The offensive comes ahead of a March vote that will undoubtedly see President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi win a second four-year term, after all serious opponents have been sidelined or driven out of the race.

El-Sissi, who has waged one of the most sweeping crackdowns on dissent in Egypt’s modern history, says he is the only one who can restore Egypt’s security, and ordered the Sinai operation after militants struck.

In November, extremists killed 311 worshippers in a mosque attack in north Sinai, the deadliest such killing in Egypt’s modern history, prompting el-Sissi to give security forces a three-month deadline to restore order using “all brute force” required.

But the militants launched another brazen attack in December, firing a missile at a helicopter that was part of the entourage of Egypt’s defence and interior ministers, who were in the provincial capital el-Arish on an unannounced visit. Neither minister was in the aircraft when the attack took place but the missile killed an officer and wounded two others.

Militancy has long been a problem in Sinai, but it spiked dramatically after el-Sissi led the military’s 2013 overthrow of elected but divisive Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Violence has been concentrated in north Sinai, but has also spread to the mainland.

Meanwhile, two militant groups that have carried out previous attacks on security forces denounced the new operation in statements posted online.

The group known as Hasm urged Egyptians to unite against the “traitorous regime” which was “digging its own grave” by “declaring open war on Sinai.”

Another group, called Liwaa el-Thawra, said the offensive, involving tens of thousands of troops, was a sign the government was losing control of Sinai, where it vowed to continue it struggle.

Authorities believe both groups, which have been designated as terrorist organizations by Egypt and the United States, to be splinter groups of Morsi’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

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Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

Brian Rohan, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Egypt hits Sinai targets, killing 16 and arresting dozens

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