(New York Times) Robert F. Worth - In northern Sinai, mysterious gunmen attack Egyptian military and police facilities every night. On Friday, up to five militants were killed and a rocket launcher was destroyed in an airstrike. After the 2011 revolution in Egypt, the security services withdrew from Sinai, leaving a vacuum where armed Islamists thrived, and some foreign fighters filtered into the area. The militants also gained access to more sophisticated weapons from Libya. The biggest concern for the U.S. and Israel is "the possibility that Egypt has lost control over what's going on in the Sinai," said Michael Wahid Hanna, an expert at the Century Foundation.
2013-08-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive