The Egyptian military began staging an offensive over the weekend to clean out the terrorist networks in the Sinai Peninsula.
The goal of the operation, dubbed “Desert Storm,” is to clear out the more than 50 terrorist compounds located mostly in the northern and central parts of the peninsula.
Some 3,000 soldiers and more than two armored battalions, including dozens of tanks and at least 10 attack helicopters, which had been moved into the peninsula in recent months, received the green light on Friday to commence the attack.
Sixty Bedouin tribes in Sinai reached agreements with the military and gave their assurance that they would not take part in the fighting. At least five army positions in northern Sinai and el-Arish were attacked over the weekend by militants armed with assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades, one officer was killed and dozens of soldiers were wounded.
Media outlets reported that the military uncovered an arms cache in Sinai which contained large quantities of weapons as well as Grad rockets. A Palestinian and a Syrian were arrested on site for reportedly smuggling the weapons from the Gaza Strip.
@ Samuel Fistel:
Good comment,I agree.
@ bernard ross:
Because the US supplied the wepons?
why did they pick the same name as the US war against Iraq?
Understanding Egypt: Coup and counter-coup turn into civil war
Egypt has become a failed state. It can never feed itself from domestic production, and can no longer afford to buy the extra foreign food it needs. So the various groups are fighting for control of the limited scraps.
Islamists form a clear majority (70%), and are composed of poor, stupid people who want to be fed for free. But they are not united. The Muslim Brotherhood (40%) are allied with the Sinai beduins, Hamas, and Qatar (which likes to annoy the Saudis). Ultimately, the Muslim Brotherhood intends to take over Egypt, the Arabian peninsula, Jordan, and Syria.
In contrast, the Salafists first want to turn every individual into an ultra-orthodox muslim, with the idea that political control will then naturally fall into place. The Saudis support the Salafists, since they accept the Saudi rulers as legitimate.
The army, and the middle-class, urban “moderate” Egyptians, want to keep what little they have, and prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from taking it away from them, so they are also supported by the Saudis.
Where will this go? Most likely to military dictatorship and low-level civil war. Gaza and the Sinai are on the way to becoming an autonomous area, since Jewish Israel wants to keep the Sinai as a buffer zone, and will not allow the Egyptian military to re-enter the Sinai in force. To protect Eilat from terrorism, Israel will eventually have to re-occupy neighboring (Egyptian) Taba.