EL-ARISH, Egypt — With terrorist attacks on the rise in the Sinai Peninsula — most notably the targeting of the Egyptian army's Battalion 101 and the Karam al-Kawadis military base — concerned parties are raising the question: Why is the Egyptian army failing to address terrorism in Sinai?

This question comes a year and a half after the army announced its war on terrorism, and the Egyptian government is not providing any real answers. The issue cannot even be discussed in the Egyptian media, since the ruling authorities have imposed such strict censorship on the media that they are now just tools of the army, incapable of uttering the truth. Following each terrorist attack, soldiers appear on media outlets as experts and analysts, justifying security failures and portraying these lapses as victories for the Egyptian people, only to be surprised by the death of dozens more soldiers in other violent attacks.

Gathering facts and information to answer this question amid tight security measures is very difficult. However, Al-Monitor succeeded in contacting an officer who participated in military operations in Sinai. He said that the failure was due to the Egyptian army's traditional and routine strategies, which are unsuitable in a fight against a terrorist group that knows Sinai like the back of its hand.

The officer told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “When I came to Sinai, I did not know anything in particular about the place, and everything I knew in advance, I had studied at the military college about questioning the patriotism of Sinai’s residents. I was surprised to find out after several months that without the people of Sinai, we cannot accomplish any military achievement in a desert whose details we have yet to discover.