SHEIKH ZUWAYYED, North Sinai, Egypt — On Tuesday, Aug. 27, North Sinai witnessed its first suicide attack that targeted Sheikh Zuwayyed's police compound. Despite being accustomed to echoing gunshots and explosions around their restive community, residents of the town and its surrounding Bedouin villages were shocked by the devastation and fear what is to come.
Egyptian security authorities offered few details regarding the attack, which is seen as a major development in the tactics and momentum of Sinai's militant groups that have unleashed an uninterrupted chain of attacks on police and military checkpoints and facilities over the past seven weeks.