Egypt winds down Sinai campaign against ISIS
For the past sixteen days Egypt has been aggressively clearing a swathe of northern Sinai of ISIS fighters, reporting dozens of jihadists as having been killed. This 'final score' is very different from what the army was saying ten days ago, when it claimed to have killed 300 militants which was then upped to 438 dead and 462 arrested by the end of day-11; begging the question 'who else has been killed'? 

At the end of the ninth day of Operation Martyr’s Rights in North Sinai, the Egyptian military announced on its official Facebook page that it had killed 55 terrorists, arrested 35 suspects and destroyed 35 houses – in one day alone.

The operation, billed to the Egyptian public as the decisive battle in the state’s ongoing campaign to tackle the country’s terrorist groups, has been met with much media fanfare, and to ensure the public is kept up-to-date, the military’s spokesman has taken to social media to announce the number of deaths and arrests each day.

In the press, the operation has been declared a sweeping success, and commentators have predicted that domestic terrorism will be “completely eradicated” by the 6 October, to coincide with the anniversary of what is perceived to be Egypt’s great 1973 military triumph against Israel.

The operation is just one campaign of many launched by the government in response to the wave of terrorist attacks sparked by the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi, in July 2013. The terrorist attacks have included widespread nationwide bombings targeting government buildings and civilians, in addition to the assassination of the prosecutor general in June with a car bomb.

Many of the offensives launched by the national army to tackle terrorist activity have centred on North Sinai, where the terrorist group Sinai Province – which last year announced allegiance to Islamic State, and has claimed responsibility for most major terrorist attacks in Egypt – is located.



But for the cities of Rafah and Sheikh Zuwayed,at the heart of the ongoing battle, Operation Martyr’s Rights is merely an intensification of the violence they’ve been caught up in for two years.

For the majority of Egyptians, spurred on by triumphalist news reports, the latest clashes are hoped to put an end to the fear that has been disrupting their lives, but for the people of Sinai, it’s a very different story.

Sheikh Zuwayed, a town of 70,000 people just over six miles away from the border area of Sinai, is thought to be one of the key militant strongholds in the peninsula.

For Essam, a community leader there, the last two weeks have been some of the harshest he’s ever had to endure. Fear of random shelling is constant – the last time he had access to electricity was six days ago and running water was cut the day the operation began on 7 September.

Special forces have been conducting exhaustive searches of homes during the day, he explains, while the nights are punctuated by continuous shelling and missile attacks that, according to four residents, strike more civilian homes than terrorist hideouts.

‘Black Wednesday’

Residents say the violence started to intensify in July, when the government responded to Sinai Province’s simultaneous assaults on military strongholds in the town with shelling and ground attacks. More than 100 men died, prompting locals to refer to 1 July as “Black Wednesday”.

A few locals like Ahmed, a resident in his 20s, say that during the clashes they couldn’t return to their homes, because the military refused to show them a safe path back as the confrontation continued.

A few locals, like Ahmed, a resident in his 20s, say that after the clashes they couldn’t return to their homes until the next day. Even then, the military refused to show them a safe path back at the confrontation continued, he explains.

Ahmed says that the militants’ initial success was mainly because of what the residents refer to as “ghost fighters”, or what militants call “submergers”; suicide attackers, Ahmed explains, who are highly trained in street war tactics and attack alone using heavy weapons to distract the military.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (centre) speaking to the public with family members of Egypt’s Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat who was killed in a bomb attack on June 30. Photograph: MENA/Xinhua Press/Corbis

‘They say we’re all terrorists’

On 1 July, Ahmed recounts that Sinai Province militants enforced a siege of the town for hours before the army’s F16 started to attack. It was the first time the fighting had penetrated the city so deeply.

In the days that followed, the military announced several operations targeting militant posts in the city, of which Operation Martyr’s Rights is a highlight, at least according to its media coverage.

The Egyptian army last week announced that in 11 days the campaign had left 438 militants dead, and a further 462 arrested.

Reports and military experts have asserted the success of the operation daily, saying that it has left militant groups destabilised and struggling, and that the operation is paving the way for the development of the peninsula.

Essam, however, is skeptical. “They are bombing us here in the city because they can’t come near where we all know terrorists are, deep in the desert.”



We’re stuck: the terrorists accuse us of dealing with the military, and the military say we’re terrorists Ahmed

Essam says that entire villages that were associated with militants have been effectively taken off the map due to heavy shelling, leaving them completely destroyed and deserted. These include Althouma, Mahdiya, Moqataa, Lofayta and Goura, among others.

“The military considers everyone in the city to be terrorists,” Essam says. “People tell [the army] ‘We don’t want you to protect us, we know how to protect ourselves, just don’t shoot at our houses’.”

No water or fuel

Aside from their experience of warfare, residents say diminishing services have also rendered their lives more difficult.

The main electricity line was hit in the July attacks and blacked out the city completely for 13 days. Water was completely cut too, and has returned only partially more than two weeks later.

Essam adds that some residents pooled funds to buy a generator, due to high demand. However, they could not operate it given the lack of fuel, which has been banned from entering the city since last September, purportedly because terrorists use it for armaments.

“But what about the other inhabitants of the city?” asks Essam.

In order to operate the generators, some of the residents drive to Arish, 24 miles away, and smuggle gas back in the city in litre bottles. Others take gas out of their cars.

For now, fleeing has become one of the only options. Essam sees pick-up trucks loaded with people and belongings leaving every day. Some residents estimate that over half of the town’s inhabitants have already left, despite military reassurances that they would guarantee the safety of the people sometimes voiced through microphones touring the town.

Ahmed, along with many other residents, finds himself between a rock and a hard place. “When the military entered Sheikh Zuwayed, we were happy, and we thought they would protect us from the terrorists. But now we’re stuck between the two: the terrorists accuse us of dealing with the military and the military says we’re all terrorists.”

Names have been changed. A version of this article first appeared on Mada Masr