Africa

Africa

In Islamic State battle, Cairo struggles to rally Sinai tribes

02 March 2016 17:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An Egyptian military effort to recruit and arm tribal fighters to take on Islamic State militants in the Sinai is failing, according to security sources, Sinai residents and tribal figures, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The military launched the program with much fanfare last year and tribal leaders pledged to provide hundreds of fighters. But the number of fighters in the field is no more than 35, security sources say. The scheme has been hampered by the military's reluctance to provide weapons to local fighters and by attacks by Islamic State, which are scaring off would-be tribal troops.

The failure is a blow to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has promised to crack down on militants, whom he sees as an existential threat to Egypt. Islamic State's insurgency in Sinai gives the ultra-hardline group a fourth front in the Middle East after Iraq, Syria, and pockets of Libya.

In statements and videos, Sinai Province, the Sinai branch of Islamic State, has said it has executed at least 17 people so far this year. On Feb. 28, the group warned on its Telegram channel, which functions as an encrypted online message board, that it had set up checkpoints around the Sinai to intercept and kill anyone who collaborates with the military.

In January, Islamic State wrote in its weekly magazine Naba', which runs news from the group's various branches, that the Sinai branch had killed 1,400 people – members of the military and police as well as collaborators and tribal fighters – in the previous 15 months. The military has disputed this figure and said only 69 military personnel were killed in that period.

It would not comment on its Sinai operations.

The army had hoped its plan, launched in April last year, would gain it an edge in the massive region, which stretches from the Suez Canal east to the Gaza Strip and Israel. It wanted to team up with tribal leaders and local fighters who know the terrain.

The local fighters promised to provide 300 men who could bring intelligence and help close down routes used to smuggle in weapons from neighboring countries. Those fighters were to be organized in what the military calls "popular committees."

But a counter-terrorism researcher who closely watches the Sinai and did not want to be named because of the threat of violence when he visits the Sinai said the strategy was floundering. "The militias are child's-play. It is a failed initiative. These guys are getting the floor wiped with them by the Islamists. They do not have the training to match them."