El-Wahat 135 km : The Carnage

For hours now, Egyptian security forces have been battling unknown militants at Egypt’s Western desert near El-Bahariya Oasis “350 km away from Cairo”.

At least 30 security personnel including 15 officers and 15 conscripts have been killed in an ambush according to security forces that spoke with media outlets including Reuters “The number is increasing by the minute” at  El-Wahat Highway between Giza and El-Bahariya Oasis exactly at 135 km.
Updated at 1:20 PM, BBC is saying that the death toll reaches 53 security personnel :( 

This is the biggest loss for the ministry of interior and the Egyptian government outside North Sinai.
Al-Wahat high is currently locked between Giza and Fayoum governorates according to security sources that spoke with Al-Ahram.

From what I have been reading online, we have technically a battle between security forces and those militants.
I have been trying to locate 135 km on Google Earth but I can not reach it.
Sources speaking to Reuters said the following :

The security sources said authorities were following a lead to a hideout deep in the desert thought to house eight suspected members of Hasm, a group which has claimed several attacks around the capital targeting judges and police since last year.
A convoy of four SUVs and one interior ministry vehicle was ambushed from higher ground by militants firing rocket-propelled grenades and detonating explosive devices, a senior source in the Giza Security Office said.

At 10 PM Cairo local time, the ministry of interior published on its official Facebook page a very vague and short statement stating the following :

Intel came to the  National security “State security” sector at the ministry about a hideout of terrorists in the middle of the desert at 135 km of Al-Wahat Highway. A patrol was prepared to arrest those terrorists but when the patrol was close to the hideout, the terrorists opened their fire , the thing which led to an exchange of fire.This resulted in the death of some police personnel and some assailants. The security forces are sweeping the region.

It did not specify a number at all or ranks.

The initial lists of victims from police officers that have been leaked to the media include National security “State security” officers as well special ops officers.
News websites reported that the Central security forces sent reinforcements including security forces and medical aid.
Helicopters were also sent and it is said that one of them saved 8 police officers including a colonel and transferred them to hospital.
Up till this moment “11:04 PM”, no group has claimed responsibility of any kind.

Already, it has not been over and up till now we do not know when it will be over.

With the first look and the size of the victims and the fact that the fight has been going for several hours now, I would say that it has Daesh’s prints but there are other suspects.
There is Muslim Brotherhood’s offspring Hasm militant group but I will say that if that group is behind that attack with that side then it has been under some kind of scary upgrade.

The second suspect who suddenly returned back to the scene in Egypt only is former special Op army officer and currently wanted by Egypt and Daesh, Al Qaeda-affiliated prince Hisham Al-Ashmaway who is believed to be in Libya for two years now.
The size of the operation and the number of victims say that the militant attackers got one hell of experience and training to fight for hours against security forces like that.
That’s why many people believe Al-Ashmaway, who is known to be an experienced special operations army officer to be behind it.
Anonymous sources began to say that the ex-army officer who was sentenced by a military court to death in absentia last week is behind tonight’s carnage.

Personally, I won’t be surprised if Al-Ashmaway and his group are behind that carnage or any other of the suspected groups. Yet I am worried that it won’t Al-Ashmaway but rather another rogue ex-officer who went radical like many others before him.

The Egyptian TV and radio channels even news channels are in another parallel universe as it seems the orders have not arrived yet.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is supposed to inaugurate New Al-Alamein City as part of the 75th anniversary of the famous WWII battle on Saturday, which means after few hours. It is unclear if he is going to postpone it or not.
He may go on with it to show defiance with little speech that nothing will deter Egypt’s from progress and development.
Up till now, there is a complete silence from the Egyptian Presidency.

For the sake of the families of those people who died tonight, we must ask questions.
For the sake of the future of this country, we must have some answer.
May God bless the soul of the martyrs and bring patience for their families.