On the ground those are the headlines you are today were back with more after inside story. We understand the differences. And the similarities of cultures across the world sentimental howie take it aljazeera will bring you the news and current of things that matter to aljazeera. A military crackdown or election campaigning egypts president orders a massive Army Operation in northern sinai weeks before his reelection bid but is the cleanup of what he calls terrorist hotbeds the answer this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program. Egypts president is vowing to wipe out enemies in sinai in the run up to his reelection bid next month the peninsula is being scoured for fighters linked to eisele they are blamed for a series of bomb gun and suicide attacks which have killed hundreds in egypt egyptian ground air and naval forces along with Border Guards and police are on the hunt possibly with the help of israel the New York Times says israeli warplanes have carried out covert airstrikes in egypt with the egyptian president s approval egypts denying the report the israelis arent commenting this is what president of the foot that has sisi had to say to armed forces three months ago. Which he did he gives you allow me to use this opportunity in front of you and in front of the holy gyptian people to assign general mohammad five. You are responsible for getting security and stability and sign only in three months you and the ministry of interior. Fighters link to ice will have repeatedly attacked the army police and civilians in sinai at least three hundred people were killed last november in a bomb and gun attack on a mosque in the northern town of beate aboud one hundred fighters and seventeen soldiers were killed three years ago after simultaneous assaults on military checkpoints in north sinai president sisi declared a state of emergency four years ago following the killing of thirty three soldiers in a suicide bomb attack the armed antigovernment campaign in sinai game pace after the overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi and killing of sixteen Border Guards six years ago. Lets bring in our guests joining us from berlin but the way Senior Researcher for the center for middle eastern and north african politics at Free University of berlin from istanbul one hundred somebody a journalist and author of sinai egypts linchpin gazas lifeline israels nightmare and by skype from cairo is timothy called us nonresident fellow at the to have an institute for middle east policy thank you all for joining us now timothy i want to start with you could you explain to our viewers what is the importance of the sinai for egypt and perhaps more importantly what is the importance of securing the sinai not just for egypt or for the broader region the sinai has a huge symbolic value for egypt in its history its modern history particularly given that so much so that blood was shed over holding sinai regaining sinai very the wars with israel beyond that its a crucial site for tourism and for attracting revenue. For hard currency for the Tourism Industry its beaches are prized its diving sites are some the best in the world. So its crucial that the security situation there the under control so that tourists feel safe to come back thats important for the countrys economy and then but at the same time sinai is a place that the government has struggled to fully control for a long time and theres always been a degree of lack of control in that part of the country and that has allowed for groups like isis operate there more easily than they would you know other parts of egypt want and weve heard so much over the years about the various insurgent groups in the sinai could you walk us through what some of those groups are and did all of those groups that were there prior to ice soul being part of the presence there did they essentially morph into isis. Well thank you very much for having us to answer your question without going back to the past two decades or three decades lets start with twenty eleven where we saw the rise of sort of bottom up of this or the champions of drusilla began by bahman the gas pipeline carrying gutteral gas through to the Eastern Mediterranean countries including israel. Their first operation happened to take place before the revolution toppled president Hosni Mubarak here on february eleventh twenty seven and it continued from there. Something like this for for over four years continue to attempt to prove itself and succeeded very much in doing this and became the Umbrella Organization for a number of other groups that claim to have presence or merely had some online presence. And nothing more than that sort of thing to mock this before pledging allegiance to isis before morphing into isis has proven that it could it could execute some of the most unprecedented attacks in the in the modern history and those include the bombing of the of the capital security directorate which never happened in the history of egypt planning and executing an assassination attempt on the interior minister himself at his residence in the couple in the capital cairo it did fail but it proved that this is an organization with highly sophisticated capabilities in terms of intelligence mobilizing weapons and fighters and so on so forth of course given the reason or given the Regional Security crisis it was not surprising when and when. This pledge of allegiance to isis in syria and iraq and became what we know now as the sinai province or without it so now and again continue down the same route proving the same successes against their own military and Security Forces. Going back to what has just said which i fully agree to there is no better example than bringing down the Russian Airliner in two thousand and eleven the passenger airliner and twenty. When with a with. Which. Gave again a massive blow to the already ailing economy we are talking about simply a group that we that we shortly describe as a group that is unprecedented in the modern history of egypt ahmed do you believe that this current operation is more about egypt and the politics of egypt with this looming president ial election if not what are some of the other factors behind all of this. Some analysts have argued that the current operation has to do with the elections that sisi wants to. Mobilize the gyptian is behind after securing a victory in sinai im not sure that this is the case egypt doesnt need to mobilize egyptians behind him his peers practically running unopposed in the elections i think the timing has to do with if we if we look back at the last week a couple of weeks ago there was this article from the New York Times plame in that israel waged many air raids in the sinai with the with the tacit approval of the. The secret approval of the Egyptian Government and then right after that there were two articles in habits one of them was basically criticizing egypt for not finishing the job in sinai and the argument was and this is an argument that weve heard from the americans and the israelis over the last couple of years that. Air force alone bombing the terrorists from the air can do only so much to get rid of the threat in sinai there has to be a ground operation and it seems that since c c issued this command to the army to get rid of terrorism over a period of three months and three months are finishing at the end of this month and we havent seen any real preparation to carry out this threat that he issued two and a half months ago i suspect of course we dont have any information there so there is a bit of speculation here i suspect that he was under a lot of pressure from israel and from the United States to finally make this decisive step to go into sinai with sufficient Ground Troops in order to finish the insurgency once and for this is of course a very risky. Promise that he made upon himself to finish things i mean what does it what does it mean to finish the insurgency the criteria for success are not very clear and i think is taking a big gamble and i dont think that the timing was of his own choice i think he would have preferred to wait until after the elections and then conduct such an operation so im speculating really but there is good indicators too actually. Somehow indicated that he was forced or he was pushed or was pressured. To give the go ahead for this operation note of of them after the election timothy picking up on what said if were talking about pressure from the u. S. Of course we have to mention the u. S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson will be visiting egypt do you feel that in light of that that president sisi really feels under pressure to try to show the americans he is delivering on a promise to combat iceland also picking up on another thing that ahmed said do you think that this timeline the president sisi talked about three months basically trying to defeat eisel in the sinai by the end of this month that thats realistic in any way well i mean i dont i think that any kind of conclusive iceland terrorism meet because theyve said that they want to eradicate terrorism its probably pretty unrealistic goal i mean weve seen that for over a decade now with the war on terrorism that was launched by the United States into the one. Destroying a tactic is not really a feasible military objective or objective money from so that of course is setting yourself up for some degree of failure they could do damage depending on how much preparations have been undertaken the last few months which we obviously are not privy to its very difficult to know what the strategy is theres very Little Information being released by the military on this. And so theres a lot of speculation that has to take place as as i have noted with respect to pressure from the United States im not so sure but theres enormous pressure the United States the u. S. Has been disappointed in and critical of the approach undertaken by the egyptian sinai for years was communicated under the Obama Administration and i i i dont doubt that. The u. S. Military continues to voice concerns to their egyptian counterparts to this day i would agree that the reports on israels participation in activities in sinai. Would intensify the pressure for egypt to show that its capable of handling the situation especially because some of the quotes in the report suggest that israel is concerned that egypt is incapable of handling the situation on its own certainly the Egyptian Military in egypt the government would like to disabuse anyone of that idea and so a large operation in sinai could be undertaken in part to send that message. But i also grew document that theres really no concern about the election. Results a foregone conclusion its not really election anymore so i think too many people try to pay. Consequences to an event that doesnt really happen he wanted there is a media blackout in egypt Egyptian Government is not allowing journalists to cover whats going on in the sinai what are you hearing from your sources on the ground there as to what is going on with this operation if they believe that it is making any kind of an impact. Well every source that we spoke to in the sinai over the past two days and even before the operation began because apparently everywhere apparently a lot of people who are involved in the subject have never have known or have they were had Higher Expectations that this operation will be launched but the most common comment that we got which was pretty glaring was the fact that this operation has much effect on the newspapers rather than on the ground itself weve been hearing that the direction military for the past three days now has been using airstrikes and the and heavy artillery on the ground to bombard areas south of from fontrailles wives and ideas that have been already been boarded for the past for the past four years im speaking of villages that the military campaign has turned into rubble literally or and displaced ninety five percent if not more of the population there were talking about an area that the military always complained that the main problem with it was the population and the population is that has been this place for more than two years so whatever is happening actually contradicts what the most very spokesmen said about this operation being different and big more tactical and also poses a major question over there over the. Confirmations that we could get and how how did the military leave those story gets for the past two years despite the freedom that it had and is now all over assad in trying to to to tackle them and now way with regard to this operation coming before the elections or or not or being a real operation if the if the state of the Egyptian State and the regime denies that it has anything to do with the latter with the upcoming president ial elections then it actually creates a question about the about the alleged success of the past operations if this one is another actual operation then. About the successes that you have been promoting for the past four years and have they been not real have they been nothing but propaganda and of course again those are questions as you said theres a media blackout the state itself does not provide any information and sees the provided proof information as risky to the military and the security operation which to be honest is a medieval theory that has proven to be wrong not only in egypt but in so many other countries. The details on the ground and the most confirmed thing is that this operation has sparked a state of fear among the community and people are rushing to buy major large amounts of household items. Essential items for medical emergencies and Food Supplies which are already in shortage given the military years stifling situation that is already happening for the past two years i think this is again another question more it over where do civilian stand stand in the car and the calculation that general calculation of military operations like this i mean you heard one hundred just talk about military operations that include boats and planes and tanks these are very conventional tactics and these are the types of tactics the type of conventional warfare that allies of egypt have for years been discouraging them from using in the sinai because they say it really isnt helping now what do you think could be done to actually help the situation in the sinai. Development long social and Economic Development thats the long Term Solution of course the they lead is that its very difficult to to start this work and to fulfill this long term objective of developing sinai and providing better opportunities for the people and to feel that and to make them feel that they are part of egypt there is a big schism between the people who live in sinai and the rest of the country. Mainland egyptians they always question their loyalties of of the sinai lloyd people and and that is that is also a big cultural barrier between egypt and. Egypt and sinai but the problem is with the short tour. So the security of course is very important its very difficult to to to create sustainable economic and social development if you dont have security now the problem is that using such heavy handed conventional military methods is probably creating more of a problem rather than solving it so how can we ensure that while you are fighting a local insurgency and this is what its all about at the end of the day it is a look at insurgency that is fed on the grievances of the people who live in sinai how can you fight such a local injured insurgency while making sure that the act of fighting it is not creating more grievances that would feed the insurgency even more i think this is the limit this is the equation that so far it seems that the Egyptian Government has not managed to solve some of the you had attacks early two thousand and seventeen. Targeting churches not just in the sinai and other parts of egypt as well but eisel then this past november you had that horrific attack that was targeting of course the sufi mosque in the sinai now how much of a shift in tactics was that what did that mean even though i still never really claimed responsibility for that attack most analysts believe they were behind it what did it mean that they shifted their tactics then targeted a sufi mosque. I think that what weve seen in the past year or so is an addition to civilian targets more legitimate which was something that we werent seeing very much of before so the start of the Campaign Announced against it in situ christians and continued with the attack on the mosque and there are a lot of it. But i think that what weve seen in general is that weve seen less attacks but more deadly attacks and what what these attacks do of course is increase the level of concern that these could get out of control as as the repertoire of potential targets expands its hard to figure out where theyre going to hit next and increases the challenge of securing enough places which makes this all the more difficult. And the fact that the government isnt adapting and it strategies or at least we havent seen that as yet only increases those concerns i mean as i would find it out there seems to be a repetition of these sports or tactics that have been undertaken the past that may just be exacerbating the problem and increasing the potential for group as opposed to addressing the needs of the community and trying to build a loyalty and trust between the state and the people of the northern sinai something thats been absent for quite a long time when the timothy was just talking about the possibility of addressing the needs of the community the great needs of the community in the sinai could you tell our viewers about just how marginalized the residents in the sinai are and how marginalized they feel and how that plays into all of this i mean theres a theres a very simple example for how marginalized neither the community in sinai is which is basically that they are not allowed to open their lanes legally and weve weve weve a government that has certified documentation of the veterans of sinai who own little ones doing the kingdom of egypt before nine hundred fifty two were stripped of their rights in one thousand nine hundred two and has never given that right back and its very its very unfortunate. Very ironic that you see foreign businessmen who are given that right to own businesses and to own real estate and landforms in south sinai in the tourism and there is an area while the while the indigenous population of cyanide that has lived there for thousands of years it doesnt have that right and a the there are the convicted of regimes that have never explained why they are treated as late as a lesser form of an egyptian citizen and a lot of times they are not even they are not even treated as a gyptian citizen but rather viewed as spies disloyal infidels and so on and so forth. This is one prime example but the examples could go for for pages and pages for talking about the situation today were talking about entire cities that spend their day and night in total darkness because of power cuts were talking about communication that is being blocked by the by the state authorities after days and nights which has a direct impact negative impact on the ordinary civilians we have many cases of pregnant pregnant women who were forced to give birth in vehicles on the highways at checkpoints and you are a massive risk to their lives in the lives of the rabies because the because of having to give birth in darkness at their houses simply because the Security Forces would not allow an ambulance to mobilize fridays to chill white or even from st louis to a suburb of the city. Were talking simply about about a military operation and an entire regime and local authorities who do not consider any any. Any port for human beings for the civilians when planning their their military offensives or were planning to when planning to shut down the entire region just like today and yesterday as for the. For the. How how other tactics affect the war on terrorism were talking about a conventional military which has been operating for years and night. Wonder again its a massive question thats not thats only. Researchers but also by foreign governments why is it some reluctance were not using and effective counterterrorism strategy based on intelligence and Tactical Units rather than a heavy handed military that exactly like mr ahmed said it inflicts more harm and creates more of her problem than solving the one that were already having timothy the military this time announced that egyptians should expect large numbers of casualties and that rhetoric seems different to me than other announcements in the past when it comes to offensive the offensives that have been carried out in the sinai why do you think that is why is it different this time when it comes to the rhetoric that theyre using. Well i think its very clear they want to that that they want the country to have a sense that theyre undertaking a massive operation and theyre taking this very seriously you want to be seen as decisive and forceful in this i mean theyve theyve made a point of clearing a large number of hospital beds throughout sinai for this for the purposes of this operation thats how we knew it was coming was the reports coming from the hospitals about that request doctors were being sent home from the back who had been on leave and in the intensive patient that they built for this operation is quite substantial. Part of it i mean they serve a purpose with relation to propaganda to you know politicizing the operation and part of it is i mean preparing them in the event that there actually are large numbers get through that its hard to know because we just dont know the details about the operation but i mean youd also see a situation which if there are large numbers of casualties at least they can say we have to say this that this is a necessary sacrifice but was a planned one as opposed to what theyve been accused of the past which is that even a lot of people get killed in operations all the time and it looks like they werent ready or they didnt plan for it or they were caught off guard by surprise like what was on. In the how they attacked a couple months ago and so i think by communicating it it best theyre trying to indicate this is this is in our calculus we are in control the situation and this is a decision that we made that you know a cost benefit analysis if you will that its necessary so for all those reasons you could see why they might might send a message of that nature gentlemen were going to have to leave it there thanks so much to all our guests but we wanted subway and timothy called us and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our Facebook Page at facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a. J. Inside story for me my homage and joy and the whole team here i cannot. I am doing this on the benefit of saddam people. So bad they see the importance of the other guys. Who witness documentaries that open your eyes. 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