Source: The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy
Author(s): Amer Mohamad
Original Link: https://timep.org/commentary/analysis/superficial-gains-but-no-lasting-success-in-sinai-2018/
On February 9 last year, the Egyptian military spokesman announced the launch of “Comprehensive Military Operation Sinai 2018.” The operation, which involved the army, navy, air force, border patrol, and police forces, began after a speech in late December 2017, after a deadly attack on a mosque in Rawda, North Sinai. In his speech, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi demanded that terrorism be defeated in Egypt within three months. Security forces were extensively deployed not only in the restive Sinai Peninsula, but also to the Western Desert and parts of the Nile Delta. The massive offensive—which launched weeks before the presidential election—was marketed by the Egyptian media as all-out war and final odyssey to crush Wilayat Sinai (the Islamic State’s- “Sinai Province”) and clean Egypt’s territory of terrorism. Despite this intense escalation of Egypt’s military operations in Sinai—an offensive associated with acute humanitarian crisis, and during which the Egyptian army listed massive successes—Wilayat Sinai still, a year later, enjoys high tactical and operational capacity and continues to pose a serious threat to the whole country.
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