Egyptian Islamic State group wing claims deadly Sinai attacks

Islamic State-linked militants struck more than a dozen army and police targets in the restive Sinai Peninsula with simultaneous attacks involving a car bomb and mortar rounds on Thursday, killing at least 26 security officers. Army officials said the death toll was expected to rise, and blamed former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood for orchestrating the attack. Islamic State’s Sinai wing claimed responsibility on Twitter for each of the four attacks that took place in North Sinai and Suez provinces. The hardline Sunni militant group has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria.

These continued attacks show that the initial successes afforded by the ‘shock and awe’ of previous major campaigns and such drastic steps as razing Rafah can only do so much without having a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy.

Mokhtar Awad, an analyst at the Centre for American Progress

The militants say this is in retaliation for a government crackdown against Morsi supporters that has left hundreds dead, thousands jailed and dozens sentenced to death. The attacks are expected to cause a great deal of embarrassment to the Egyptian government and military, which come after a nearly yearlong offensive in Sinai aimed at uprooting Islamic militants under the banner of fighting terrorism.

Middle East