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| Africa North |
| Egyptian army plans operation against terror in Sinai |
| 2013-07-12 |
| Egyptian media reports Egyptian military plans to launch operation to cleanse Mount Halal in Sinai using artillery and air power; another report says Cairo decides to close Rafah border crossing "indefinitely." The Egyptian military is planning an imminent offensive in Sinani against hardline Islamist militants, after suspected jihadists killed an Egyptian police officer and wounded a second in an attack on a checkpoint in the peninsula on Friday. Militants have staged almost daily attacks on security checkpoints in Sinai since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected leader. Arab daily Al-Hayat reported on Friday that the Egyptian military decided to go ahead with a plan of cleansing Mount Halal in Sinai, which houses "armed gangs and terrorists." Such an operation would include artillery and air power in order "to resolve the battle quickly." However, the army would first give the militants a chance to surrender. Meanwhile on Friday an Egyptian military helicopter briefly crossed into Israeli-controlled airspace over the Gaza Strip, however security sources in Egypt and Israel both described the flyover as a navigational error. "The helicopter mistakenly crossed into Gazan airspace and immediately returned to Egypt," the Israeli security source said. Witnesses in Gaza said it stayed on their side of the border for about 10 minutes before returning. Separately, Egyptian authorities arrested three Palestinian gunmen on Friday during "an attempt to attack vital sites in Sinai," Egyptian state media reported. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #3 Advertising your intent always helps IIRC, it's standard Arab operating procedure. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-07-12 18:47 |
| #2 DEBKA Israel allows an Egyptian Apache gunship base in Sinai to combat Islamist terror |
| Posted by: tipper 2013-07-12 13:53 |
| #1 Advertising your intent always helps. They may find that Mount Halal might already be "cleansed" when they get there. Wouldn't want their nasty air power and artillery to hurts someone, now would we? |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2013-07-12 13:53 |