Egypt’s army said jihadists wearing explosive belts tried to storm a military camp in the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday in an assault that left eight soldiers and 14 attackers dead.
According to the military statement, the militants blew themselves up outside the camp after they were prevented by security forces from entering.
North Sinai has become a terrorist center since isolating former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi who is from the Muslim Brotherhood, which is considered a terrorist group by Egypt. Extremist groups are spread North Sinai, including Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis that pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued a presidential decree extending the state of emergency across the country for a period of three months starting from Saturday April 14.
Sisi assigned, end of November, the army and police to use power to uproot terrorism, and a wide operation was launched on Feb. 9 in Sinai against “terrorist members”.
The latest extension was to allow security forces to “take measures necessary to confront the dangers and funding of terrorism and safeguard security in all parts of the country,” the official Gazette said.
This is the fourth time the state of emergency has been renewed since it was imposed for the first time on April 10, 2017 after terrorist attacks on two churches in Tanta and Alexandria.
Due to geography and logistic support, it is very difficult to purge the terrorists from the area. Egpyt has been trying to purge the terrorists by using hard muscles. Unless, Egpyt starts implementing social programmes and economic incentves in the region, the fight cannot be won completely. And with economic situation in Egpyt, this may take a lot of struggle.
