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.
