To battle IS, Egypt arms Bedouin

Army: Their local knowledge is an advantage

CAIRO: In a remote outpost in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Ibrahim Abu-Sefira watches a mountainous skyline of jagged rock, ears tuned to the twilight silence, listening for any signs a fragile peace may be disturbed.

An elder from the Bedouin Tayaha tribe, he has seen armies, both Egyptian and Israeli, pass through this vast desert. Now the area is the centre of a years-long, bloody conflict between the Egyptian military and a local affiliate of the Islamic State group.

In a switch from the past, the military has begun arming Bedouin tribesmen like AbuSefira and having them patrol in operations against the IS militants deep in the peninsula’s interior, where their local knowledge gives them an advantage, Abu-Sefira and other Bedouin say.

“We have to do it, it’s our duty to make the people feel safe from the terrorists who were killing us,” Abu-Sefira said from a checkpoint he was manning along with a dozen other men from the area, near the Halal mountains where the IS affiliate has been known to stockpile weapons and equipment.

The military has not publicly acknowledged arming and using the Bedouin as a fighting force, saying only that they cooperate and provide intelligence. In the past, security forces have been wary of giving weapons to the Bedouin, given the long history of tensions with the tribesmen. The shift appears to be an attempt to bring the Sinai population more onto the government’s side in the fight.

Egypt has struggled to defeat the insurgency, led by the IS affiliate known as the Sinai Province of the Islamic State.

Thousands of security forces and civilians have been killed, and thousands more arrested in what critics describe as a heavy-handed security crackdown. Homes have been destroyed, and heavy restrictions imposed on the movement of people and goods.

The tribesmen estimate that around 100 Bedouin have been killed, whether in gunbattles or by roadside bombs. They said they operate under Egypt’s Third Army and are regularly attached to its units, with 4x4s and armored vehicles.

The Bedouin role points to how the fight has expanded beyond the coastal towns deep into the desert landscape of the peninsula. The tribesmen spoke of operating in areas as far as 150km south of the coast.

“Central Sinai is now mostly cleared,” said Saleh Ibn-Rashid, also of the Tayaha tribe. He said the army offered his unit assault rifles, light machine guns, body armour and helmets.

“They treat us like soldiers and give us everything we need,” he said, adding that his men have uncovered explosives, fuel supplies, cars and other equipment in homes and caves.