Stability elusive as Sisi seeks 2nd term
CAIRO (Reuters) – The attack by Islamic State came as Egypt’s defense and interior ministers walked toward a helicopter waiting to fly them out of the Sinai peninsula last December. Five army and police sources told Reuters the terrorists fired a laser-guided missile at the aircraft, destroying it.
The ministers survived the El-Arish Air Base attack, whose sophistication and boldness served as a reminder that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, expected to easily win reelection this month, is engaged in a major military campaign to deliver the security he has promised to Egyptians.
Sisi’s security forces have yet to quash a stubborn insurgency in Sinai, an area that Islamic State is using as a base in its campaign to install a caliphate in Egypt. The UN singled out ISIS in Egypt in a January report from its secretary general, expressing concern over the branch’s “resilience.”
The military mentioned the attack in a brief statement but did not give details. A spokesman who also speaks on behalf of the Defense Ministry later declined further comment on the attack. The Interior Ministry did not respond to telephone calls or reply to questions on WhatsApp.
The military previously has said that it has killed more than 1,800 jihadists in the area since late 2014, according to a Reuters review of its public statements over the period.
Last month, the army began a highly publicized offensive, and says it has killed scores of suspected fighters and detained hundreds more in Sinai, the main stronghold of ISIS after its defeats in Libya, Iraq and Syria.
The military says the campaign features unprecedented coordination between the army, navy and air force in Sinai, and that these tactics should help it clear the peninsula of terrorists.
Sisi’s supporters argue that the security situation now, although not completely secure, is better and more predictable than the unrest that rocked Egypt for years after the Arab Spring uprising of 2011. Sisi’s office did not respond to requests for comment about the security situation.
But years of military action in the Sinai have not stopped Islamist fighters carrying out attacks intended to destabilize the government and stir up unrest. In the past four months, they have carried out two spectacular assaults there – on the air base on December 19, and at a Sufi mosque on November 24, killing more than 300 people.
In the helicopter operation, military and police sources say jihadists commandeered a house on the edge of the air base and used a Russian-made Kornet missile, a much more advanced weapon than they usually use. It was a rare and close targeting of senior government officials by Islamists, and the attack alarmed Egypt’s security establishment, several foreign diplomats said. It came three weeks after Sisi ordered his generals to use “brute force” against jihadists.
Some diplomats and analysts say the army must adopt more effective counterinsurgency tactics and avoid alienating residents with the more destructive methods.
A Western diplomat said authorities have been focusing on conventional warfare by using heavy weapons rather than adopting more targeted, intelligence-led tactics.