Normalcy restored in Sinai city

EL ARISH, Egypt — Mohammed Amer Shaaban stood over trays of fresh fish at his tiny store in the coastal Sinai Peninsula city of el-Arish, pointing to his right and left while recalling the tough days when Islamic State militants operated with impunity.

“They killed a Christian who owns a knife shop there and an informant over there. They also killed one of my cousins,” he said.

“We have enjoyed some stability and peace for the past six or seven months,” added the 48-year-old father of five as some two dozen journalists descended on el-Arish’s fish market as part of a rare, army-organized trip.

The trip was chiefly designed to show off signs of normalcy in el-Arish, northern Sinai’s largest city, as evidence that the military’s all-out offensive against militants launched nearly 10 months ago has succeeded.

But in the city and the surrounding deserts, the signs of war are difficult to miss, particularly the enormous security presence.

The fight against militants in Sinai has gone on for years, but the insurgency gathered steam after the 2013 ouster by the military of a freely elected but divisive president, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Authorities have since shut down almost all underground tunnels that they suspected militants used to smuggle fighters and weapons into Sinai from neighboring Gaza, ruled by the Islamist Hamas group since 2007.

Pervasive security, and the great lengths to which the military went to protect the journalists, suggest danger may not be far away. The reporters traveled in armored cars with gunners in full combat gear perched atop, and a signal-jamming vehicle tagged along as a precaution against roadside bombs. The top officials in the convoy were protected by heavily armed policemen in black fatigues and ski masks.