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This Time in Sinai, the Egyptians Mean Business

(Times of Israel) Avi Issacharoff - Recent years have seen numerous dramatic reports of Egyptian discoveries of smuggling tunnels and interceptions of arms caches, but this month there appears to be a more serious effort by Cairo in the Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptian military's new campaign aims to break the back of Islamist terrorist groups in Sinai once and for all. Unlike previous actions, the army is combating Islamist groups in central and northwest Sinai in an effort to cripple their strongholds in Jebel Halal - the Tora Bora of Sinai. The Egyptian army has also cracked down on militant operations in the Rafah border area in an attempt to clear the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza - the heartland of the smuggling-tunnel industry. Until three weeks ago, over 200 tunnels operated beneath the Egypt-Gaza border. Since then, tunnel activity has dropped by over 90%.
2013-07-17 00:00:00
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