Saturday, August 10, 2013

Global Jihad Groups Are Moving Into The Sinai To Stay



Sinai Incident Shows That, In Mideast, Global Jihad Groups Are Here To Stay -- Haaretz

If Israel was behind the attack which reportedly killed at least five suspected terrorists in northern Sinai, this would be the first such strike since the 1979 peace accord with Egypt.

Like a number of other incidents over the past few months, the details of Friday's reported incident near the Rafah border crossing in the Sinai Peninsula are still vague. This is probably more comfortable for some of those involved. That is the nature of the many incidents that have taken place in the shadow of the turbulence in the Arab world, which can be understood as a long line of operations, in the inter-war years, which aim to fight arms smuggling, and sometimes also to foil terror threats.

The Arab and international media usually attribute these kinds of activities to Israel, which doesn't officially respond to the claims. This vagueness around the reports serves two purposes: It creates a certain blur around the operation and those behind it in the eyes of adversaries, and it also enables opponents to maintain a healthy "space of denial," thus mitigating any insult or breach of sovereignty, and curbing the danger of escalation.

Read more ....

My Comment: The above video was done 7 months ago by Al Jazeera, but it gives a rather good summary on the growth of Jihad groups in the Sinai, and the Egyptian government's response to it. But with Egypt's security forces now focused on the unrest throughout the country, the Sinai is no longer a priority for them but it is becoming a fertile area for Jihadist groups to congregate and plan.

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