North Sinai mosque attack remembered

Muazz Mohamed

These days two years ago, Islamic State terrorists attacked a mosque in the North Sinai village of al-Rawda and killed 305 worshippers.

Around 128 other people were wounded in the attack, the bloodiest in Egypt’s modern history.

Comprehensive operation

A short time later, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gave the go-ahead signal for using brute force against the terrorists. He asked the army and police to uproot terrorism from the whole of Sinai in a matter of three months.

On February 9, 2018, the comprehensive operation “Sinai 2018” started.

The operation undermined terrorist organizations active in Sinai and consequently led to a decrease in the number of attacks these organizations are capable of staging. This year witnessed the smallest number of attacks, compared with previous years.

Defeating terrorism

According to the State Information Service, terrorist organizations were capable of launching eight attacks only in 2018, including five with improvised explosive devices. Other devices planted by the terrorists failed in hitting their targets.

In 2014, terrorist organizations carried out 222 attacks. In 2016, they carried out 199 attacks only. In 2017, there were 50 attacks. The drop in the number of the attacks is an indication to the success of the comprehensive operation.

Al-Rawda had not witnessed any attacks since the mosque attack which took place November 24, 2017. Nevertheless, other attacks on army and police posts took place in the area, including one on June 5, 2019 on a security post. Eight policemen were killed in this attack. On September 28, 2019, another attack was launched on another security post.

World praise

“Egypt fights terrorism by all means, both on its territories and outside them,” said international terrorism expert, Rida Yacoub. “The whole world bears witness to this,” he told The Reference.

He attributed the latest drop in terrorist attacks in Sinai to the success of the comprehensive operation now implemented by the army and police in the territory.

Retired army general, Samir Farag, said the operation had caused the destruction of the command center of the Islamic State group in Sinai.

“A large number of the arms warehouses of the group were destroyed,” he said. “Most of the leaders of the group were also killed.”