Terrorists in Sinai up their game
In a striking development, an Islamic State splinter group in Sinai has targeted an elite Egyptian army battalion, which raises concerns that militants might be adopting a new pattern of qualitative operations.
CAIRO — Terrorists appear to be shifting their tactics in Egypt, not only aiming for highly visible civilian targets but also taking on higher-risk attacks.
After Egypt’s armed forces overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, in the wake of massive protests against him on June 30 of the same year, clashes spiked between the forces and terrorist groups in Sinai.
These clashes escalated when violence spread to the cities with a series of terrorist operations: the bombing of the Cairo Security Directorate building in 2014; the assassination of former Attorney General Hisham Barakat in 2015; the bomb explosion that hit Cairo’s St. Peter and St. Paul Coptic Orthodox Church in December; and the bloody April attacks on St. Mark's Church in Alexandria and St. George's Church in Tanta.
On July 7, new attacks seemed to make a quantum leap in daring, as terrorists targeted the outpost of an elite Egyptian commando force, the 103rd Thunderbolt Battalion (al-Saaka), in the southern Rafah village of el-Barth in Sinai. In a statement the same day, an Islamic State (IS) splinter group in Sinai claimed responsibility for ambushing the battalion.
