Egypt’s Sinai, the Military and the Islamic State.

[ARCH٤R]

A disaster has taken place over the past several months as the Islamic State carried out a suicide attack on an army camp in the Sinai that was foiled, fierce fighting caused residents to flee and left the Islamic State militants to inhabit their empty homes and plant over 200 IEDs across the village - some took the lives of residents when they returned.
Diving into details:
In July, an Egyptian Army camp in Bir El Abd was attacked by a car bomb tactic and several militants. 2 lost their lives during the clash, 3 more died of their wounds after the hospital in the area was evacuated during the attack. Later on and according to residents the Army requested the evacuation of the buildings on the main roads fearing another attack. This attack witnessed a (relatively) quick reaction from the Egyptian Air Force command which scrambled F-16s - reportedly from Meliz AB in the Sinai - to engage the militants in the outskirts as the AH-64s attacked at least 2 convoys in the village.

And around one weak later the Islamic State reportedly entered the village from “several directions”, the residents fled as the army engaged with the militants with no casualties reported, the military nonetheless would decide to carry out airstrikes on the buildings leaving many destroyed. This left ISIS enough time to plant hundreds of IEDs which took the lives of 8 soldiers and later on over 18 residents as they return in an organized fashion. The military has killed 114 militants and removed at least 222 EIDs from the area for the loss of no more than 15 soldiers.
Conclusions:
Instead of defeating the Islamic State in 2018, the military killed over 500 militants in a “Blitzkrieg”, secured up to a limit El Arish (allowing for new infrastructural projects to take place and as well as preparing El Arish Air Base to host fighter jets), Rafah (allowing for a new infrastructural project to kick off), Sheikh Zuwaid and allowed desalination plants, resorts, factories and a water canal to be made. Based on my observations it is likely that the IS now operated south of the water canal I mentioned, possibly from the northernmost pass in the Sinai, they are supposedly cut off from supplies from Gaza.
Residents have claimed that the militants weren’t speaking Egyptian Arabic.
@Falcon29 I believe you mentioned the need to screen the people coming into the Sinai from the mainland and I’ll look more into that but shallowly speaking I think you’re right, apologies.

@Falcon29 I believe you mentioned the need to screen the people coming into the Sinai from the mainland and I’ll look more into that but shallowly speaking I think you’re right, apologies.

The reason I’m saying so is that there is a “New Ismailia” being built East of the canal, it is likely some militants or supplies reached the Islamic State through its supply line or its workers.

 

[Falcon29]

Based on my observations it is likely that the IS now operated south of the water canal I mentioned, possibly from the northernmost pass in the Sinai, they are supposedly cut off from supplies from Gaza.
Residents have claimed that the militants weren’t speaking Egyptian Arabic.
@Falcon29 I believe you mentioned the need to screen the people coming into the Sinai from the mainland and I’ll look more into that but shallowly speaking I think you’re right, apologies.

The reason I’m saying so is that there is a “New Ismailia” being built East of the canal, it is likely some militants or supplies reached the Islamic State through its supply line or its workers.

No worries .... As I said in our previous discussions around this topic, there may be a small number of sympathizers coming from Gaza but after Hamas's crackdown, Egypt action against tunnels, and relocation of the population in Egyptian Rafah, it supports my theory that these IS militants are coming from the western direction of Sinai. I've been to Sinai plenty of times and been in and around the cities near the Gaza border and seen the security measures the Egyptian army is taking, and I can say that area is basically under a shutdown.

You have to go through many inspections and checkpoints to get in or out of Gaza and/or to travel out of Sinai. Getting into the larger Sinai province was very easy though. You just have to give a reason which you can make up. And after ISIS's decline in Syria/Iraq and elsewhere, unfortunately their hotspot at the moment is the Sinai province and you can bet that there are foreigners traveling into Egypt to get into there. This is why I believe it's necessary for the Egyptian army to increase screening efforts for those coming into the Sinai.

 

[ARCH٤R]

Militants attacked a village south east Port Fouad, three killed by “security forces”. The Islamic State has executed someone for collaborating with the military.

 

[Imran Khan]

its been there for long time now Egypt need some massive operation like ZARB E AZB

 

[ARCH٤R]

its been there for long time now Egypt need some massive operation like ZARB E AZB

On paper Egypt might be carrying out offensives, but in reality we deploy in checkpoints and camps and wait for militants to visit us. One must realize that some tactics are just as harmful as the historic way of dealing with the Sinai. There is more to the Sinai than just ISIS, we have Israel that could veto certain operations according to Camp David Peace treaty (Although unlikely as long as it’s Netanyahu who’s the PM) and also have tribes that might co-operate with the Islamic State especially if the government decided to take lands that they inhabited but didn’t own according to law. After the coup in 2013 many arms owning tribes were taking side with ISIS (after all it was Morsi who first cared for them after 30 years of Mubarak) and it was only when ISIS militants attacked a tribe leader that things began to ease for the military. Currently the Sinai has still many groups that have weapons, some are via Gaza, else from decades of arms transfer to Israel and Gaza from Sudan.
To cut it short: Because of decades of progressive mistakes.
Results:

Photos of the militants entering the village:

 

[ARCH٤R]

F-16 jet sounds reported over El Arish 2 days ago - I doubt that they landed in El Arish Air Base.
Here is an infrastructural project that could have been a source for supplies for the Islamic State in Rafah (by Gaza)

3 IS militants have been killed by security forces 5 days ago south east of Port Fouad.

 

[Mack Truck]

The Egyptian army doesn't want to get rid of the militants in Sinai, for some reason they seem to want to keep some of them around, either for political or military reasons, or both...