Saturday, October 25, 2014

Black Friday in #Sinai

Today was officially the Black Friday in Sinai. In afternoon a bombed car exploded at an army checkpoint near El-Sheikh Zowaid city in North Sinai.At least 30 army personnel from soldiers, conscripts and officers were killed in the worst attacks against army personnel in Sinai since its return to Egypt.

Then couple of hours later we read that there was a shooting at some police checkpoint in Al-Arish city. Then at mid night a CSF police camp near Al-Arish international airport was allegedly attacked by missiles and dozens of conscripts were injured. A bloody day indeed.

You must know that this week not less than 40 security personnel were killed as well 50 others were injured in North Sinai alone. I see that the security campaign to purge Sinai from terrorism is not working as expected. Already I believe that 3 years have passed since the army started its operation in August 2012 to purge Sinai from the terrorists who killed our borders guards.

So far no one has officially claimed responsibility but of course Ajnad Beit Al-Maqids terrorist group is the main suspect .


As soon as the attack it was announced that El-Sisi would hold a meeting for the National Defence council to discuss the latest developments in Sinai.
After several hours of his meeting with the National Defence council, President El-Sisi issued a presidential decree declaring the state of emergency in parts of North Sinai governorate for 3 months starting from 5 am Saturday 25 October 2014. The state of emergency will include a curfew from 5 pm to 7 am till further notice. The decree delegates the armed forces and police to do whatever it takes to confront terrorism and to protect public and private properties in the area.

The decree also states whoever violates the presidential decree will be sentenced to jail in accordance to law 162 for year 1958

On the other hand the Supreme council of armed forces "SCAF" will hold a meeting on Saturday to discuss the developments in Sinai following the attack.

And of course the Egyptian authorities have closed the Rafah borders crossing with Gaza indefinitely. Already I do not understand why they would close the crossings for real. After all weapons are smuggled through tunnels and not through official borders crossings supposedly under official supervision otherwise there would be corruption and the borders guards should be investigated.

Already there is a question : For months the army kept declaring that most of the tunnels have been destroyed then how arms are being smuggled to Sinai ?

There are too many questions that should be answered so this won't happen again , so the terrorists won't win and so we won't lose Sinai and our people there. There are too many questions that should be answered using logic and not using empty slogans.

How could this happen when the army and police supposedly for three years now have been waging merciless war against terrorism ? Yes the attacks against army and police soared after the dispersal of Rabaa sit in in 2013 to be accurate but if we go and check the statements of ministers and army commanders in that year one can believe that Sinai was completely purged.

There is some thing wrong in the security and military strategy adopted starting with the fact that we are dealing with a guerrilla warfare as it seems. Also I do not think that the Egyptian army has won the hearts and minds of people in North Sinai with its scorched land policy adopted for a year now.

By the way the army has not issued a single statement since the attack regarding its details. The army did not even care to publish a denial or a confirmation on whether the commander of the North Sinai's operations has been injured or not as Sky News Arabia claimed on twitter earlier.

Also the Egyptian National TV and State-owned news agency MENA did not care that much to cover the attack unlike Turkish Anadolu news agency and Emirati British Sky News Arabia.

I can not ignore how almost all the Pro-Sisi Pro-Military TV hosts , public figures and ex-military veterans turned in to strategic analysts are kept repeating on TV channels this evening that the people of North Sinai should be displaced in order to make it easier for the army to beat terrorists. Is this coming in the way ? It is worth to mention that the Egyptian government began to displace the people already who live near the borders with Gaza.

In the end I wish to live to see this day when our army and intelligence commanders and officers stand in front of true national security committee in true representative elected parliament to answer questions on their performance and to be held accountable in front of the public. I wish to live and see this day for the sake of those soldiers and officers killed because of bad calculations and strategies.

Security and military solutions are not enough and won't be enough to purge Sinai from true terrorism. I do not know how many souls have be lost in order to understand this fundamental fact.

6 comments:

  1. It wouldn't be surprising if a racist displacement of Bedouin is attempted in the Sinai. Guess where the precedent for proposing the displacement of Bedouin actually appeared? Egyptian state terrorists have already been coming very close to forcing displacement on Libyan Amazigh and potentially on Libyan Tuareg and Tebu groups in the future.

    Egypt has been actively sponsoring civil war and terrorism in Libya for some time. I am not talking about the Benghazi operation but about its other secret collaborative efforts with the UAE, especially in the western regions of the country.

    If Egypt fans the flames of war in the Nafusa Mountains, the world will have little option but to consider that its regime is fomenting a possible multi-way genocide in Libya.

    The regime doesn't get it, though. Numerous vengeful miltias and fighting forces exist in Libya. Declaring entire cities to be terrorist entities will eventually result in a retaliatory turnabout in which the Egyptian state will be treated as one massive terrorist organization by sections of the Maghreb.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tell the regime to stop. If its behavior changed, it wouldn't be subject to so much criticism. It is pretty obvious that getting into the game of playing militias off against each other in Libya has helped contribute to the fighting between ethnic and tribal groups. Why did the government feel the need to help the UAE secretly attack Tripoli and Gharyan? Do you trust these countries to stop assistance the militias fighting in the Nafusa region? Do you think it would bother them at all if ethnic massacres start occurring there?

      Regardless, I don't intend to post much more in the future, so the wait for the desire expressed in your post will not be long.

      Delete
  2. The best advice to Arab Governments:
    Rule with Wisdom and Justice.

    The 25th January 2011 and the 23rd July 1952 Revolutions should continue.

    The governments personel should leave their Palaces, live on their salaries... and Serve their people

    Otherwise, they should leave their positions to qualified and honest people.

    ReplyDelete

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