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India-Pakistan
Government of Pakistan dispatched the third consignment of relief goods for the people of Gaza
2024-01-02
[TWITTER]

Oh goody. Expired goods from Pakistan. Food poisoning all around — just what the Gazans need to make their misery complete.
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Africa North
Egyptian military consolidates grip on northern Sinai
2021-10-21
[JPost] Egypt's military has secured large areas of the strategic stretch of land bordering Palestinian-run Gaza and Israel on one side and the Suez Canal on the other.

A string of watchtowers, checkpoints and army posts mark the northern edge of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and troops patrol in armored vehicles along repaved roads.

Branch roads have been blocked off with piles of sand and some houses demolished to deprive militants of cover between Al Arish and Sheikh Zuweid, a focal point of the war between the Egyptian military and Islamist insurgents over the past decade.

The measures reflect a significant shift in the security situation in the past two years.

The military has secured large areas of the strategic stretch of land bordering Palestinian-run Gaza and Israel on one side and the Suez Canal on the other, and is no longer on the back foot, witnesses, security sources and analysts say.

Civilian life is still severely curtailed but the long-neglected region is changing as the state forges ahead with development schemes.

Many of the militants have been killed, fled or surrendered. As few as 200 are still active, down from 400 two years ago and 800 in 2017, according to three Egyptian security sources.
It’s nice to have relatively solid numbers.
In place of big attacks, they increasingly depend on snipers, homemade bombs and mortars.

On the outskirts of North Sinai's main city Al Arish, near where razed olive farms once stood, the government has built new apartment blocks.

A resident said people just sought a return to normality.

"We've had enough," said the man in his 50s, declining to be named. "We want to return to our houses or even the new ones they are building. We want to live in peace again."

Egyptian authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the situation in North Sinai.
Related:
North Sinai: 2021-10-08 US gives Egypt’s Sinai 20 buses for development purposes
North Sinai: 2021-08-27 Egypt reopens Gaza crossing as Israel eases restrictions
North Sinai: 2021-08-23 Egypt closes Rafah border crossing to Gaza after Israel-Hamas escalation
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Africa North
Egyptian army communique #12 agglomerates four days of effort
2018-02-28

Egypt says 3 soldiers killed in Sinai fighting
Herewith two reports presented, dear Reader, so you can choose for yourself what to believe.
[IsraelTimes] Egypt’s military says three soldiers, including an officer, were killed while fighting jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula.

Military spokesman Col. Tamer al-Rifai says three other officers and four conscripts were wounded in the fighting on Tuesday, which killed 11 jihadists.

The troops were taking part in a countrywide offensive announced February 9. The army says it has destroyed hundreds of targets and killed dozens of fighters. The latest casualties bring the army’s total death toll to 10 since the operation began.

The figures cannot be independently confirmed as press access is severely restricted.

11 'takfiris' killed in Egypt's Sinai in raids, foiled suicidal attack: Army

[AlAhram] Eleven "takfiris" were killed by the Egyptian army during ongoing Operation Sinai 2018 operations over the past four days, the armed forces said on Tuesday.

Army spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said in communiqué number 12 that "four extremely dangerous takfiris" were eliminated as the forces foiled a suicide attack by the terrorist elements, who were wearing explosive belts and military uniforms.

The Arabic word "takfiri" refers to extremist Sunni Muslims who accuse other Muslims of being infidels, often as a justification for using violence against them.

Seven others were killed by the armed forces following a shootout during a raid on a terrorist hideout in Al-Arish, with three AK-47 assault rifles and two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) seized.

According to the statement, a non-commissioned officer and two soldiers were killed in the combat operations. Seven army personnel, including an officer, were also injured.

Twenty targets and locations used by the terrorists for launching attacks were hit by the air force, which also struck 185 other targets, including hideouts and weapon stores, said the statement.

An underground cache of weapons was found by the armed forces, who also destroyed 375 other hideouts and trenches filled with explosives, narcotics and fuel. Eighteen cars and 71 unlicensed motorcycles were also destroyed.

Two 4x4 vehicles laden with explosives and ammunition were discovered as they attempted to cross into Egypt and were destroyed by the air force.

The army's border guards thwarted an attempt to smuggle 30 firearms and foil four illegal immigration attempts, arresting 419 infiltrators of different nationalities.

More than 1,750 kilograms of ready-to-sell narcotics were also seized after the armed forces discovered and destroyed 36 farms growing marijuana and opium poppies.

The army added that its military engineers detected and destroyed two tunnel openings measuring 1.5 by 2 metres wide and 15 meters deep, also detonating and neutralizing 27 explosive devices that were planted to target troops in the area.

The army said that 641 people suspected being of criminals were arrested, bringing the number of those arrested since the launch of the operation in the first week of February to 2,235 people.

The authorities have released 1,447 people following identity checks and confirmation that they were not involved in illegal activities.

The counter-terrorist operation, which was launched on 9 February, involves land, naval and air forces, as well as the police and border guards.

It targets "terrorist and criminal elements and organizations" in northern and central Sinai, as well as parts of the Nile Delta and the Western Desert, as announced by the military at the start of the operation.
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Africa North
Egypt executes 15 for deadly terrorist attack in 2013: Defence lawyer
2017-12-27
[AlAhram] Egyptian authorities executed 15 people on Tuesday who had been convicted in a terrorism-related case dating back to 2013, Khaled al-Masry, a defence lawyer in the case said.

The 15 men were convicted of the murder of military personnel during a holy warrior attack in Arish, North Sinai, on 15 August 2013. The assault on a checkpoint left one army officer and eight soldiers dead.

A military court issued a preliminary death sentence against the defendants in 2015.

In November of this year, the High Military Cassation Court rejected an appeal against the sentence, and the 15 men were issued with final verdicts.

Here is the report we had at the time from An Nahar, under the headline At Least 578 People Killed in Egypt Festivities:
A 21-year-old policeman was fatally shot in the chest and arm in the North Sinai town of Al-Arish after gunnies attacked the Police Club.

Later in the Sinai peninsula, snuffies killed seven other soldiers in an attack on a checkpoint, security officials said.

The soldiers were killed when gunnies in two cars attacked them in their tents at a checkpoint near a cop shoppe in the town of El-Arish, the officials said.

The northern part of the peninsula has seen a semi-insurgency by Bedouin snuffies since the July 3 military overthrow of Mohammed Morsi.

An Nahar adds:
IS's Egypt affiliate has killed hundreds of coppers and soldiers in attacks in the Sinai and also targeted civilians in the mainland.

Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds to death over unrest since the military ousted divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
 Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013. But most defendants have appealed and won retrials.

While their attacks have become less frequent, they have increasingly targeted civilians over the past year.

In November, suspected IS button men massacred more than 300 Moslem worshippers at a mosque in Sinai associated with Sufi Moslems IS views as heretical.

The jihadists have killed more than 100 Christians in church bombings and shootings since December last year.

After the mosque massacre, President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi instructed his military chief of staff to quell the attacks in three months using "brutal force".
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Africa North
ISIS in Sinai planting their flag in Arish
2017-03-14
[Ynet] Images surface showing ISIS fighters in the Sinai manning checkpoints and performing security inspections in the Egyptian city of al-Arish on the Mediterranean coast.
Photos can be seen at the link.
Images have surfaced of ISIS-Sinai Province (ISIS-SP) fighters manning checkpoints and performing security inspections in the city of al-Arish in the northern Sinai.

Pictures show ISIS fighters armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) moving through traffic and inspecting the IDs of drivers. Another picture even showed a suspicious man being detained in the city square.

ISIS-SP has recently been receiving a lot of "media" attention from the organization given their recent setbacks in Iraq and Syria.

Al-Arish is the capital of the North Sinai and the largest city on the entire peninsula. The city also lies at the heart of friction between Egyptian security forces and the terror organization.

ISIS-SP recently took responsibility for two bombing attacks in the city, which killed three officers--including the supervisor of general security in the southern Sinai--and maimed seven others.

In addition to the bombings in the city, dozens of Coptic Christian families have fled al-Arish to Ismailia after ISIS-SP murdered several Copts. The organization's publications routinely call for violence against Copts and other Christians in the region.

A front man for the Egyptian military also published an account of Egyptian military activities in the region against ISIS-SP, but it would appear there is still work to be done. The Islamic Lion of Islam organization is estimated to have at least 1,000 fighters in the area.
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Africa North
Gunmen kill 8 Egyptian policemen in southwest Egypt
2017-01-17
[IsraelTimes] Gunmen killed eight coppers late Monday in an attack on a checkpoint in el-Wadi el-Gedid province in southwest Egypt, the interior ministry said.

Two of the attackers were killed when security forces fought back, and three other security personnel were maimed, the ministry said in a statement.

The attack took place on al-Naqab checkpoint, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from el-Kharga city, the capital of the province, the ministry said.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of Islamic myrmidons.

The attack was in the remote Wadi al-Jadid province and came a week after eight other coppers were killed by jihadist holy warriors in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

The Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 terror group said on January 10 it was behind a boom-mobile assault on a police checkpoint in the Sinai that killed eight people a day earlier.

One civilian killed, two injured in IED explosion in North Sinai's Al-Arish

[AlAhram] One civilian was killed and two were maimed when an improvised bomb (IED) detonated in the North Sinai city of al-Arish on Monday, al-Ahram Arabic news website reported, citing medical sources. According to al-Ahram, the IED was planted in piles of garbage on Ahmed Oraby Street in the city's center.

No group has yet grabbed credit for the attack, which comes a day after Egyptian police said they were able to kill a leading figure in the terrorist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis during a house raid in al-Arish.

In a separate incident, a security source told al-Ahram that unknown gunnies seized on Monday a general tax authority car at gunpoint in the North Sinai city. The security source said the car was taken to an unknown location.

They added that security forces were currently combing the area to arrest the culprits.
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Africa North
Police officer, soldier killed in roadside bomb in Egypt's North Sinai
2017-01-01
[AlAhram] A police officer and an army soldier were killed and another soldier injured in a roadside kaboom in North Sinai's Al Arish on Saturday, state news agency MENA reported.

Security sources told the agency that the victims' armoured vehicle went kaboom! due to a remotely detonated bomb as it passed by al-Arish international road during a security operation.

The Egyptian army and police have been battling an entrenched Islamist insurgency for several years in North Sinai, mostly concentrated in the cities of Sheikh Zuwaid, Rafah and El-Arish.

The Armed Forces launched a major military operation this year named "Martyrs retribution" to combat Lions of Islam in North Sinai.

In mid-October, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi extended a state of emergency, which was originally declared in certain areas of the restive province in August 2013 and consecutively renewed ever since, for three months starting 31 October in designated areas of the North Sinai governorate.
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Africa North
N. Sinai op: approximately 7 Lions of Islam killed, 2 arrested, war material destroyed
2016-10-31
Four Egyptian army personnel killed in North Sinai: Armed forces

[AlAhram] Four Egyptian armed forces personnel were killed in North Sinai amid ongoing operations against myrmidons, according to a statement released Saturday by the spokesperson for the Egyptian armed forces. The statement did not include the names of the killed personnel or their ranks.

According to the statement, issued Saturday evening, military operations in al-Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zuwaid
...all near or on the border of the Gaza Strip...
resulted in the killing of six holy warriors and the arrest of two people wanted on criminal charges.

The statement added that security forces destroyed three warehouses used by holy warriors to store bombs. Security forces also detonated 12 bombs that they said were ready to be used against them on highways. The statement also said that three hideouts used by holy warriors were destroyed and a number of arms confiscated.

6 injured in car blast in Egypt's Al-Arish

[AlAhram] Three policemen and three civilians were injured on Sunday after a car bomb detonated in North Sinai’s Al-Arish, Egypt’s interior ministry has said. According to a ministry statement, a suicide bomber was driving a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device which detonated next to a passing police patrol.

According to statement, the limbs of a person, believed to be the assailant’s, were found at the scene.

Initial reports had said that one Egyptian police officer and four civilians were injured in the incident, which took place near a bridge in the Granada district. The injured were transferred to hospital.

Last week, Egypt’s army launched a new campaign to fight Islamist militants in North Sinai, killing over 50 in response to a militant attack two weeks ago that killed 12 soldiers and injured six others.
The Times of Israel adds:
In a statement posted on social media, the Islamic State affiliate in Egypt claimed the suicide car bomb, which damaged an armored vehicle and a police car.

Egypt's interior ministry arrests five for Friday's IED attack in Cairo

[AlAhram] Egypt's interior ministry announced Sunday that it arrested five men suspected of carrying out an improvised explosive device (IED) attack on Gesr Al Suez road in Cairo hours after the explosion killed one civilian on Friday. According to a statement on the ministry’s official Facebook page, the men claimed responsibility for the IED attack, saying that they were targeting security forces.

The explosion, which killed a passerby and injured one other person in Cairo's Ain Shams district, is thought to have been intended for a passing security convoy.

The statement added that the attackers were plotting "other attacks targeting army and police personnel."
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Africa North
3 civilians killed, 3 injured in IED explosion in North Sinai's Arish
2016-10-03
[AlAhram] Three workers in an electrical company were killed and three of their colleagues were maimed when the vehicle transporting them to work hit an IED in the west of Al Arish city in North Sinai, state news agency MENA reported.

The injured were transferred to Al Arish military hospital.
That's the third attack in two days. It's time for the army to stage another clean-up of the mountain hideaways.

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Africa North
Three police officers, 1 civilian killed in militant attack in Al Arish
2016-09-29
[AlAhram] Three coppers and a taxi driver were killed in a krazed killer attack on their car in North Sinai's Al Arish on Wednesday morning, al-Ahram Arabic website reported.

Security sources told Al Ahram website that holy warriors ambushed the taxi of the three officers.

The bodies were transferred to Al Arish military hospital.
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Africa North
One police conscript killed by IED, two army conscripts killed by sniper in separate N. Sinai attacks
2016-08-20
Police conscript killed by IED, five injured in Egypt's North Sinai

[AlAhram] A 22-year-old police conscript was killed on Friday and five other Egyptian coppers injured by an improvised bomb in Arish in North Sinai, reported Al-Ahram Arabic website. The device went kaboom! in the western part of the city.

Two army conscripts killed in North Sinai's Arish

[AlAhram] Two conscripts from the Egyptian armed forces were killed early Thursday in North Sinai, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported. Security sources told Al Ahram that 21-years-old conscript Emad Hanna and 22-years-old Ahmed Abu El-Anein were killed by snipers while on duty at a checkpoint near Al-Arish in North Sinai.

The victims are natives of Beni Suef governorate in Upper Egypt. The bodies were transferred to Al-Arish military hospital. Funerals for the victims are set for Friday in their home governorate.
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Africa North
Egyptian police captain killed after explosion during North Sinai shootout
2016-08-16
[AlAhram] An Egyptian police captain was killed on Monday when a landmine detonated during a shootout with "terrorist elements" in North Sinai's Al-Arish, an interior ministry official announced.

In an official statement, a ministry media official said that Captain Mohammed Safwat Mohammed Roshdy died from injuries sustained following the landmine kaboom while security forces were chasing snuffies who had been planting a 50kg bomb in the vicinity of an Al-Arish cop shoppe.

According to the statement, the police were able to defuse the bomb that was set to target the cop shoppe, and were able to injure one of the gunnies.

The statement added that security forces were currently intensifying efforts to catch the culprits.
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