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Egypt Declares Emergency in Northern Sinai

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EIRNS—Egypt has declared a state of emergency in northern Sinai following a terror attack that killed up to 30 soldiers. Egypt’s National Defense Council declared a three-month state of emergency in areas near borders with Israel and the Gaza Strip as well, while at the same time the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip was closed.

The coordinated assault on an army checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula began with a car bomb attack, possibly with a suicide bomber. Other militants then fired rocket propelled grenades, striking a tank carrying ammunition and igniting a secondary explosion. Roadside bombs intended to target rescuers struck two army vehicles, seriously wounding a senior officer. The attack took place some 9 miles from the northern Sinai city of al-Arish.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but officials believe the assault was carried out by the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or Champions of Jerusalem — which has claimed a string of past attacks on security forces. Headed by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the National Defense Council vowed that the army would take "revenge for the shedding of dear blood." It instructed authorities to take measures which it described necessary to protect lives of civilians.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis is the major Islamist terror group that has been conducting attacks throughout the Sinai Peninsula over the past period especially since the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi as Egyptian President. During Morsi’s one year as President, members of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis were amnestied from prison and also allowed to return to Egypt from fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq where they had been allied with al-Qaeda. Well-informed Egyptian sources confirmed reports of the links between the Muslim Bortherhood and the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis fighters and also reported that the group has been receiving arms from the jihadist groups operating in Libya.

This major attack comes at a time when the government’s New Suez Canal Project, in the Sinai aims to develop the entire region as a logistics, industrial and mining center.