Sinai insurgency

	Date:  23 February 2011—present (2 years, 4 months, 1 week and 4 days)
Location	Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
Status	On going

Belligerents
1.Egypt 2.Egyptian Armed Forces 3.Central Security Forces 4Egyptian National police	Islamist militants

Commanders and leaders
1. Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi  2.Sami Anan  3.Hussein Tantawi  4.Sedki Sobhi

 

Strength
	1,600

Casualties   and losses
1. Military: 21 killed 2. Police: 7 killed 3.  3 soldiers killed	55 militants killed
5 Egyptian and 7 Israeli civilians killed                                                                             Total: 97-105 killed

Sinai insurgency is a radical Islamist militant activity in Sinai peninsula, initiating in early 2011, as a fallout of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. The actions of those Islamist elements, largely composed of radicals among the local Bedouins, drew a harsh response from interim Egyptian government since mid-2011 as Operation Eagle. However, attacks against government and foreign facilities in the area have continued by mid-2012, resulting in massive crackdown by new Egyptian government nicknamed Operation Sinai. In May 2013, following an abduction of Egyptian officers, the violence in Sinai surged once again.

Background

Following the overthrow of the Egyptian regime of Mubarak in 2011, the country became increasingly destabilized. Radical Islamic elements in the Sinai peninsula exploited the opportunity, using the unique environment of the largely demilitarized Sinai Peninsula, in launching several waves of attacks upon Egyptian military and commercial facilities.

First attacks

First insurgency attacks came sporadically from late February 2011, concentrating on the Arab Gas Pipeline, running into Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and its offshoot from al-Arish to Israel - constantly disrupting Egyptian gas supply to the entire region.

On 30 July, militants staged an attack on an Egyptian police station in El-Arish, killing six.

On 2 August, a group claiming to be the Sinai wing of Al-Qaeda declared its intention to create an Islamic caliphate in the Sinai.

Operation Eagle

In mid-2011, a squad of unrecognized Islamic terrorists infiltrated Israeli border from Sinai, launching coordinated attacks against Israeli military and civilians. Following bloody clashes in the south, Israel accused Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and launched retaliation attack, escalating the tension with Palestinian militants.

On 5 August 2012, a group of armed men ambushed an Egyptian military base in the Sinai Peninsula, killing 16 Egyptian soldiers and stealing two Egyptian armored cars, and then infiltrated into Israel. The attackers rammed through the Kerem Shalom border crossing in Israel, while one of the vehicles exploded. The attackers then engaged in a firefight with soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, and six attackers were killed during the firefight. No Israelis were injured. The attackers were dressed as Bedouins and attacked with guns and rocket-propelled grenades. 35 attackers took part in this attack on the Egyptian base.

Operation Sinai

August 2012 attack on Egyptian armed forces triggered a crackdown, led by the Egyptian Army, Police special forces and the Air Force, sweeping Sinai from Jihadist terrorist militants. During the operation 32 militants and suspects killed, 38 arrested; while 2 civilians were killed (by early September 2012).

On May 2013, a number of Egyptian Army police officers were taken hostage by armed tribesmen in the Sinai peninsula, with their videos released on the internet begging for their lives. As a response, Egypt’s government had built up security forces in northern Sinai as part of an effort to secure the release of six policemen and a border guard kidnapped by suspected militants. On 20-21 May, Egyptian troops and police, backed by helicopter gunships, conducted a sweep through a number of villages in northern Sinai, along the border with Israel. The officials said the forces came under fire from gunmen in vehicles, triggering the clashes. The clashes left one gunman dead by 21 May. The hostages were released on 22 May after talks between the captors and Bedouins. One suspect in the kidnapping was arrested on 30

May 2013