Groups uniting in bid to fight Egypt’s military

By Maggie Michael

Associated Press

CAIRO — An Egyptian doctor once close to Osa­ma bin Laden is bringing together multiple al-Qai­da- inspired groups in Egypt’s Sinai to fight the country’s military, as the lawless peninsula emerg­es as a new theater for ji­had, according to Egyp­tian intelligence and secu­rity officials.

There have been other signs of a dangerous shift in the longtime turmoil in the peninsula bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip since the military’s July 3 ouster of Islamist Presi­dent Mohammed Morsi, the officials say. With the shifts, Sinai’s instability is becoming more regional and threatens to turn into an outright insurgency.

Sinai has seen an influx of foreign fighters over the past two months, in­cluding several hundred Yemenis. Several groups that long operated in the area to establish an Islam­ic caliphate and attack their traditional enemy, Israel, have joined others in declaring formally that their objective now is to battle Egypt’s military.

Also, Sinai has become the focus of attention among major regional ji­hadi groups. A leader of al-Qaida’s Iraqi branch, Abu Mohammed al-Adna­ni, last weekend called on Egyptians to fight the mil­itary, as did al-Qaida’s top leader, Ayman al-Zawah­ri. The militant consid­ered the most dangerous man in the Sahara — one­eyed terror leader Mok­tar Belmoktar, a former member of al-Qaida’s North Africa branch — joined forces with a Mali­based jihadi group last month and vowed attacks in Egypt. Sinai’s disparate mili­tant groups are now “on the same page, in full co­operation in the face of the same threat,” Gen. Sherif Ismail, a recently retired security adviser to the governor of North­ern Sinai, told the AP. He said the groups are in­spired by al-Qaida, but not necessarily linked to the mother group.

Now, the military has stepped up operations. On Tuesday, helicopter gun­ships struck suspected militant hideouts in sever­al villages near the bor­ders with Israel and Gaza, killing at least eight and wounding 15, state news agency MENA reported.

Since Morsi’s ouster, more than 70 police and soldiers have been killed by militants in a cycle of attack and counterattack that has seen jihadis turn to more brutal tactics. In the worst single attack, gunmen pulled police recruits from buses, lay them on the ground and shot 25 of them to death on Aug. 19. Days later, a group of militants was killed before carrying out a suicide car bombing in a significant escalation.