BICOM

Egypt’s military yesterday claimed that it had established “full control” over the Sinai Peninsula, which borders both Israel and the Gaza Strip and has been the launch pad for significant Islamist attacks on Egyptian forces since last summer.

Since Egypt’s military ousted Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood last July, Sinai has become increasingly lawless and plagued by violence. However, Major General Mohamed al-Shahat, who commands Egyptian forces in Sinai, told Egypt’s MENA news agency yesterday that the military had “complete control over the situation” and that, “There is obvious stability in Sinai despite rumours that there are still terrorist elements and tunnels in north Sinai.”

Al-Shahat, who was only recently appointed to his position by prospective president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said that a total of 1,380 operations had been conducted by the military against Islamists since September and that the Egyptian army had destroyed more than 1,500 smuggling tunnels into Sinai from the Gaza Strip. Egypt’s ruling military accuses Hamas, which rules Gaza, of using the tunnels to provide Islamist groups in Sinai with arms and manpower.

Reuters says that the Sinai violence since last summer has killed around 500 people. The violence has also targeted Israel on occasion. In January, two rockets were fired on Eilat, an important Israeli tourist resort and commercial port. The city came under fire last year too and its airport was closed in August as a precaution. In February, four people were killed after an Islamist group exploded a bomb on a tourist bus carrying South Korean pilgrims across the Egyptian border into Israel.

Armed Islamist groups in Sinai also pose a wider regional and global threat. Since the start of the year, pipelines which supply gas to Jordan have been blown up on four occasions.