CAIRO – Egypt has begun a sweeping military operation against the militantsactive in violence-torn North Sinai Province in the extreme northwest andthe nearby Nile Delta.
The army announced the launch of ‘Operation Sinai 2018’ on Friday, puttingthe police and military forces on “maximum alert,” AFP reported.
The goal is to tighten control of border districts and “clean up areaswhere there are terrorist hotbeds,” it added.
The campaign involves the air force, navy and army as well as police, hesaid.
“The armed forces calls upon the Egyptian people in all parts of thecountry to closely cooperate with law enforcement forces to confrontterrorism, uproot it and immediately report any elements threatening thesecurity and stability of the country,” the military spokesman, ColonelTamer al-Rifai, said in a televised address.
Last week, The New York Times reported that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisihad kept northern Sinai a closed military area, barring reporters from theregion.
The Associated Press has reported that the Egyptian army was bulldozinghomes and olive groves to build “a buffer zone” around North SinaiProvince’s only airport in the city of el-Arish.
The report said the buffer zone will destroy dozens of hamlets around theairport, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes for an unknownfuture, sparking some protest by residents despite the government promisesof compensation.
Sisi, who is preparing to seek a second term in the upcoming Marchelections, has vowed that the army will employ “absolute force” in a bid toeliminate terrorism in the Sinai Peninsula.
The Sinai Peninsula has been under a state of emergency since October 2014,after a deadly terrorist attack left 33 Egyptian soldiers dead.
Over the past few years, terrorists have been carrying out anti-governmentactivities and fatal attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil in Egypt thaterupted after the country’s first democratically-elected president, MohamedMorsi, was ousted in a military coup in July 2013.
The Velayat Sinai group, which is affiliated with the Daesh Takfiriterrorists, has claimed responsibility for most of the assaults.