Only a few days after the targeted assassination of Egypt’s Chief Prosecutor – Hisham Barakat – (the highest level assassination of any Egyptian government representative since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat), Egypt bared witness to a large scale offensive in the Sinai by the Islamic State’s affiliated branch “Al-Dawla Al-Islamiya.”
These ISIS-affiliated militants relentlessly assaulted the Egyptian Army on Wednesday, leading to the death of 17 soldiers (Egyptian Army’s official number); this is the highest causality count in the Sinai Peninsula since the 1973 October War with Israel.
The insurgency’s retaliatory attacks in the Sinai Peninsula has been ongoing since the genesis of the Arab Spring in March 2011; this revolution led to the eventual resignation and arrest of President Hosni Mubarak
Despite the numerous promises by the Egypt state government and military installations to eliminate the insurgency inside the Sinai, the area has witnessed a recent resurgence of terrorist groups – mostly from the local bedouin tribes.
According to some reports, the militant groups have succeeded in securing weapons and military equipment to swell their ranks to 12,000+ fighters.
Videos have already been uploaded to social media sites in the month of June that depicted the militants operating several vehicles and parading throughout towns in large uninterrupted caravans.
Islamic State media reports claim that their affiliate group managed to launch a well-coordinated offensive that struck 15 Egyptian military control installations, three of which, featured suicide operations or V.B.I.E.D {Vehicle born improvised explosive device} – commonly referred to as car bombs.
Although the number of military targets that were attacked by the terrorist group are currently disputed by the Egyptian military, the one militant assault that was not disputed was the heavy battle around the police station in the town of Sheikh Zuweid; this required the mobilization of the Egyptian Air Force’s F-16s and Apache Helicopters in order to quell the chaotic situation.
Two large explosions of unknown origins even occurred on the border town of Rafah, which had recently re-opened to allow supplies to the Gaza Strip.
The fighting did not die down as initially reported; however, skirmishes continued for hours as the insurgents targeted areas, including the city of Arish (population of 165,000).
The militant assault was not uncoordinated, mirroring the battles typically seen by Islamic State fighters in Syria or Iraq.
Already agitated over the assassination of state prosecutor Hisham Barakat, the government of Egypt quickly passed an anti-terrorism bill that allowed more central authority and gave provisions that allowed for the prolonging of detained dissidents.
Several MPs within Egypt said that they considered the country in a “state of war” because of these ruthless attacks.
Meanwhile, Israel reacted with speedy diligence by completely closing the border-crossings between them and Egypt, as the threat of further attacks by Al-Dawla Al-Islamia approached the Israeli border.
