Islamic State claims responsibility for major attack on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula

After suffering one of the worst attacks in recent memory, Egypt is left reeling.

|
Thomas Hartwell/AP
Egyptian police try to clear the street where women rally at the spot where Shaimaa el-Sabbagh, a 32-year-old mother, was shot in downtown Cairo on Saturday near Talaat Harb Square, during a protest in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. Egypt's police are coming under withering criticism as signs mount that police officers not only fired birdshot at Shaimaa el-Sabbagh during a peaceful protest last weekend but then also hampered efforts to save her life by ignoring pleas to let an ambulance take her away.

Islamic State's Egypt wing claimed responsibility for a series of attacks that killed at least 27 on Thursday in some of the worst anti-state violence in months, after commemorations around the anniversary of the 2011 uprising turned deadly this week.

Egypt's government faces an Islamist insurgency based in Sinai and growing discontent with what critics perceive as heavy handed security tactics.

A series of tweets from the Sinai Province's Twitter account claimed responsibility for each of the four attacks that took place in North Sinai and Suez provinces within hours of one another on Thursday night.

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, Egypt's most active militant group, changed its name to Sinai Province last year after swearing allegiance to Islamic State, the hardline Sunni militant group that has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, drawing U.S.-led airstrikes.

Thursday's first attack was a bombing targeting a military headquarters, base and hotel in the capital of North Sinai province that killed 25 and wounded at least 58, including nine civilians, security and medical sources said.

The flagship government newspaper, al-Ahram, said its office in the city of Al-Arish, which is situated opposite the military buildings, had been "completely destroyed," although it was not clear if it had been a target.

Later, suspected militants killed an army major and wounded six others at a checkpoint in Rafah, followed by a roadside bomb in Suez city that killed a police officer, and an assault on a checkpoint south of Al-Arish that wounded four soldiers, security sources said.

Sinai-based militants have killed hundreds of security officers since President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power following mass protests against his rule.

The military said in a statement on its Facebook page that the attacks were the result of a successful campaign to pressure the militants.

The U.S. State Department condemned the attack, saying in a statement: "The United States remains steadfast in its support of the Egyptian government's efforts to combat the threat of terrorism in Egypt as part of our continuing commitment to the strategic partnership between our two countries."

PROTEST DEATHS

Tensions have risen across Egypt in the past week with protests, some of them violent, marking four years since the uprising that ousted veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power.

Earlier on Thursday, a group of women protested in Cairo over the death of activist Shaimaa Sabbagh and around 25 others said to have been killed by security forces at rallies commemorating the 2011 uprising.

Sabbagh, 32, died on Saturday as riot police were breaking up a small, peaceful demonstration. Friends said she had been shot, and images of her bleeding body rippled out across social media, sparking outrage and condemnation.

"The Interior Ministry are thugs!" chanted around 100 women protesters at the site of Sabbagh's death. Some held up signs with the word "murderer" scrawled over the face of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim.

The protesters were defying a law that severely restricts protests. "People are here at incredible risk to themselves. But it's a way of standing against the fear they have instilled," said activist Yasmin el-Rifae.

Ibrahim has said an investigation into Sabbagh's death will lead to prosecution if any member of the security forces is found responsible.

One of the organizers of Thursday's demonstration said they had asked only women to attend because they feared infiltration by plainclothes male agents.

Across the street from the protesters, beside police officers, men stood making lewd gestures and yelling profanities. Others chanted in favor of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Criticism is growing of the security tactics Sisi has used since Mursi was ousted.

A crackdown that began with the deaths of hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and the imprisonment of thousands more has expanded to include liberals and other activists.

Some of those now opposed to the government initially supported the protests that led to Mursi's removal and Sisi's rise to power, as people who knew Sabbagh said she had.

(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia and Mostafa Hashem, Ali Abdelaty, Maggie Fick and Michael Georgy in Cairo; Additional reporting by Peter Cooney in Washington; Writing by Shadi Bushra; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Grant McCool, Cynthia Osterman and Andrew Hay)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Islamic State claims responsibility for major attack on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0129/Islamic-State-claims-responsibility-for-major-attack-on-Egypt-s-Sinai-Peninsula
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe