Egypt's Army Answers Deadly Sinai Attacks With Curfew, Emergency Rules | WPN World People News

Egypt has declared a state of emergency in the northern Sinai after a terrorist attack Friday that killed at least 30 army soldiers. President Abdel Fattah al Sisi declared in a broadcast speech that Egypt is fighting a mortal battle against terrorists, and that the war will be long.

A group of Egyptians carried placards and chanted against the violence in Cairo Saturday, a day after a deadly suicide bombing in the Sinai and a separate gun attack, both against security checkpooints.

The deaths of at least 30 troops struck a raw nerve among many Egyptians, who want an end to the violence and terrorism that has plagued parts of the country for months.

A mother of one of the soldiers who died Friday shook her hands in despair and demanded retribution. An older man lamented that the victims were innocent and did not deserve to die. Another man said, “Egyptians are tired of violence, and it's time to put a stop to it.”

The government declared a three-month state of emergency in the northern and central Sinai peninsula and closed the Rafah border crossing to Gaza until further notice. A nghtlong curfew - from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. - also was imposed in towns and villages across the Sinai.

A presidential decree affirmed that “the army and police will take all necessary measures to tackle the dangers of terrorism and its financing, to preserve the security of the region... and to protect the lives of Egyptians.”

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi gave an emotional address Saturday. Flanked by top army officers, he said Egypt is facing an “external enemy” trying to wreak havoc.

He says a foreign party was behind Friday's terror attack against the Egyptian Army, and that the bombing was intended to break the will of the Egyptian people and the Egyptian Army. "Beware," the president insisted, "of what they are trying to do to us."

Sissi said Egypt is waging an “existential battle” against terrorism, one that will last a long time. But he predicted the country will “persevere and triumph in the end.”

Accounts of Friday's most damaging attack said a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into an army checkpoint north of the Sinai town of el Arish, killing dozens of soldiers. A separate gun attack at another checkpoint south of el Arish killed one officer and wounded two other troops.

Veteran Egyptian editor and publisher Hisham Kassem tells VOA that many analysts believe terrorists In the Sinai are linked to other terrorist groups across the region.

"It's a network - a group of terrorist entities - spread geographically much further than anyone realizes," he said. "The focus right now is on the Islamic State, but it extends much further than that: across the sub-saharan Africa" - from Al Shabab in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria to terror groups in Mali.

Kassem noted that President Sisi alluded in his speech to “setting up a buffer zone” south of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. However, the veteran editor is skeptical that such a plan could succeed, due to a lack of support from local residents.

A terrorist group that calls itself “Ansar Beit al Maqdis” frequently takes responsibility for terrorist operations in the Sinai. Some Egyptian analysts have tied the group to Hamas, the group that controls Gaza and is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and others; Hamas militants deny those charges.

source: Voice of America