Lest we forget, the regime’s mouthpiece the daily Al-Ahram newspaper’s front page headline announced “Egypt to be declared terrorism-free in days,” on 23 September 2013, and estimated “may be a week”.
But the insurgency in Sinai, which is already a decade long at least, starting with the 2004 Taba bombings, has only escalated during Sisi’s rule and will continue to escalate as his army pursues the Dirty War strategies and tactics by the book.
Supported by the US and Israel, the Egyptian army is completely embroiled now in the counterinsurgency operations, and is leading the “fight against terrorism”, even when Sisi initially admitted in a meeting with senior commanders sometime in 2013 before the coup, that it was not “the army’s job to fight terrorism. The army is a killing machine… [Fighting terrorism] is the job of the ministry of interior.”
And after more than a year of the start of the counterinsurgency, it is clear the security situation is going down the drains, with no accountability.