Tribes become more involved in anti-terrorism operations in Sinai Peninsula
Reports have emerged about an agreement between tribal leaders and Egyptian security forces to hand over members of Islamic State in exchange for pardons.
With the assistance of a large number of local tribal members fighting alongside the Egyptian army, Egyptian authorities have expanded their coordination with the tribes when confronting armed organizations in the Sinai Peninsula.
An agreement was reached in May among tribal elders and sovereign security agencies in which the elders would secure the return of tribal members who were involved with Wilayat Sinai, the Islamic State’s (IS) branch in Sinai, who would then be pardoned upon interrogation.
The Sinai Tribal Union, a group of tribesmen cooperating with Egyptian authorities on security operations in the northern Sinai Peninsula, announced June 7 that one of its members had been brutally murdered by Wilayat Sinai in southern Rafah two months after he was kidnapped.
The union had revealed in late May “the killing of two civilians from the Tarabin tribe during security operations in Sinai [as they fought] members of Wilayat Sinai.”
