Monday, April 13, 2015

Egypt's Rapid Deployment Forces Head to the Kingdom !? "Updated"

There is a lot of reaction about my post regarding the Egyptian Ground troops in Saudi Arabia.
The rumors mill did not stop on Sunday , in fact I woke up and found lots of talk about a photo showing Egyptian soldiers wearing their uniform in their way allegedly to Saudi Arabia in a civilian Egypt Air Flight “Why would they go on an Egypt Air Flight in the first place? “ on twitter and Facebook.

Going to Saudi Arabia then to Yemen ?? "Mohamed El-Bolok" 
The Egyptian and Yemeni social media users claimed that those smiling soldiers were actually the first group of Egyptian Ground troops heading to the Kingdom and then to Yemen.
This photo was posted by Egyptian Sky News Arabia Correspondent Mohamed ElBolok on his Facebook account earlier Sunday. According to El-Bolok it was taken by the flight’s Captain.
The date was unclear.
He removed the photo later. I do not understand why to keep the matter secret.
Update #1: Egypt Air says that the photo was fabricated and that it did not transfer any soldiers to Saudi Arabia. 
Update #2 : Some are saying that this photo is an old one showing the Egyptian troops heading to UAE to participate in the Joint Emirati-Egyptian military exercise held in UAE last March.There are joint military exercises between the two countries since 2014. Nevertheless I am afraid I can not find any thing about Egyptian troops in UAE in March 2015 or late March 2015 in the Emirati newspapers or Egyptian newspapers with quick search. Usually the Armed Forces Spox publishes statements and photos about those exercises, I did not find anything either there.
Of course if you take a closer look to the military uniform of the soldiers , you will find that the badge on their right arm says “Rapid Deployment Forces”. Yes El-Sisi sent the newly formed forces to Saudi Arabia to participate in possible military intervention/Land invasion to Yemen according to where you stand.
There has been not official statement from Egypt regarding this matter so far.


On Saturday minister of defense Sedky Sobhi visited the Rapid Deployment Forces and said in a speech that Egypt’s stability depended on having strong Armed Forces capable of doing all missions whether on land or sea or air to keep the Egyptian and Arabic national security safe.

In that speech the minister of defense added that the Rapid Deployment Forces were ready to operate whether inside Egypt our outside it.

I think sending those forces in missions across the borders needs the approval of the National Defense council and the government publicly according to the constitution in the absence of the parliament.

Famous Saudi twitter Whistleblower “@Mujtahdid” claimed on Saturday that after the failure of Saudi Arabia to bring Pakistani troops to that coalition for the second time, allegedly Saudi Defense minister Mohamed Bin Salman called El-Sisi and told him that all his requests would be fulfilled if he sent ground troops to the Kingdom now. The Pro-Islamist twitter figure claimed that El-Sisi promised to send ground troops immediately.

Many regarded those as signs that the Egyptian government would send those troops to Saudi Arabia or rather Yemen despite the public’s fear.

Of course on Sunday  we found out at there was a reshuffle in the Egyptian Armed Forces’ top posts including the head of the military intelligence , the Navy commander and the head of the second army “North Sinai and Suez zone”. There has been no statement on the official armed Spokesperson FB page about the reshuffle or the bios of the new commanders till this moment.

Needless to say that decision in that timing fueled speculations that there is a split inside SCAF and that some commanders do not agree with Egypt’s military involvement in Yemen. Personally I feel it has to do with Sinai more aside of course with that reshuffle in the Navy Forces. The former second army “North Sinai and Suez” commander is now the head of the military intelligence and the there is a new commander for the Second army in a very critical time. We got not less than three deadly attacks against the security forces in North Sinai for God Sake.  
The Navy Forces got battleships at Bab El-Mandeb strain. 
The rumors did not stop as I told earlier. People began to speak about how Al-Watan newspaper claimed that Egypt would 70,000 soldiers to Yemen on social media. Of course when I checked the Pro-regime website, I found out that it only translated a Christian Science Monitor report about the latest developments in Yemen. The original CSM report says that following :
The result is a tribal coalition of some 70,000 fighters – and the pledge of a Saudi-Egyptian expeditionary force. Yemeni officials say they are preparing to retake the southern port city of Aden “within days,” and thence fight for control over the rest of Yemen.
The 70,000 fighters are not Egyptians but rather Yemeni fighters.
Of course hours later we found Pro-regime website Al-Bawaba claiming that Egypt would send 46,000 soldiers from Yemen !!!!
 I do not think that El-Sisi will be able to send that number.
Sinai is on fire , it is unwise to get involve in that deep regional military conflict in that way now !! El-Sisi should focus on ending that human tragedy in North Sinai before sending Egyptians to die in order to restore “ironically” the legitimacy of the Yemeni President who is supported by None-other than the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen.
May God bless and protect those soldiers may their return back home safe without spilling the blood of the great Yemeni people. I do not want those young men to meet the ill fate of those young Egyptians who went and fought in Yemen in 1963 and never came back from there.
May God protect the people of Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia away from that political and military regional crap !!

3 comments:

  1. You say "Yes El-Sisi sent the newly formed forces to Saudi Arabia to participate in possible military intervention/Land invasion to Yemen according to where you stand."

    But you did not include any actual evidence to show that Egypt sent any troops to Saudi Arabia. You just provided what some people said online. You also provided a picture of what appears to be Egyptian troops inside a plane. That doesn't mean anything. I could copy that picture and claim that the troops were on their way to or from a training exercise near the border with Libya. That doesn't mean anything, because anyone can say anything.

    If it is true that Egypt sent troops to Saudi Arabia, we will know about it when an official statement is made. Until that happens, this is nonsense.

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  2. well scripted.... this is what we were trying to explain saudis.... we are on war in our northern areas. more than 1,75,000 pakistani soldiers are fighting in trial areas in addition to that we have an enemy like india in our east who is always looking for a chance to malign and attack Pakistan. From last 1 year there is a continuous exchange of firing and shelling between Pakistan and India. Think logically in such conditions how can Pakistan risk sending its troops in Yemen. Plus war is never a swich on off thing. Before jumping into war you have to make alot of planning and consider many strategic things. Consider if Pakistan decide to send its troops in yemen, their high command has to do alot of homework. Currently when they are busy in coping indian backed terrorists in its western part and indian army in east it would be very difficult to fight a war in areas very much unknown to them. So its much wise to extinguish the fire instead of heating it. On both sides its Muslims who are dying and sadly its the arabian lands who are on fire.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous, you said "...they are busy in coping indian backed terrorists in its western part..."

      You are mistaken. Laid back India is the world's largest democracy, while Pakistan is an infamous exporter of state-sponsored terrorism, and an iniquitous den of filthy land thieves. Read about the 2008 Mumbai attacks before you say which is the terrorist nation. It was Pakistan who hosted Osama bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad.

      Delete

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