After 2017's mass casualty attack and with elections approaching, Egypt is tackling terror in Sinai with a major operation launched on February 9.
Egypt announced a major operation Friday to defeat the terror that has plagued Sinai over the last years. Titles “Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018” it is designed to “purge” the peninsula of threats, Egyptian media said.
Egyptian military spokesman Tamer El-Rafei stood at a podium flanked by maps of the country and Sinai and announced the operation on state TV. “Great people of Egypt, in accordance with the delegation issued by the president of the republic, the supreme commander of the Egyptian armed forces, to the general command of the Egyptian armed forces and the interior ministry to comprehensively confront terrorism as well other criminal activities in close cooperation with all state institutions,” the statement said, according to Egypt’s Al-Ahram.
A video posted by the armed forces showed military vehicles and patriotic images designed to prepare the country for the upcoming battles. The statement said that the operation was not only directed at Sinai but also the Nile valley and other threats. Terrorists would be “cleared” from the country. The operation comes after mass casualty attacks last year that killed hundreds in Sinai.