Sinai insurgency

Sinai insurgency
Part of terrorism in Egypt, the Egyptian Crisis, and the Arab Winter
Map of the Sinai Peninsula (for a more detailed map of the current military situation in Sinai, see here)
Date 5 February 2011[18] – 25 January 2023[19] (11 years, 11 months, 2 weeks and 6 days) Location Sinai Peninsula, Egypt Result Egyptian government claims victory[20] ISIS militants turn to low-level insurgency Small-to-medium attacks continue
Belligerents
Egypt Central Security Forces Egyptian Ministry of the Interior National Security Service National Police Egyptian Army Sinai Tribal Union Supported by:  Israel (air support, intelligence)[1]  United Arab Emirates (training, counterterrorism missions)[2]	Islamists: Ansar Bait al-Maqdis[3] (until late 2014) Al-Qaeda Tawhid al-Jihad[4] Al-Qaeda in Sinai Peninsula[5] (from late 2011) Abdullah Azzam Brigades[6] Ansar al-Sharia[7] Hasm Movement[8] Bedouin tribesmen[9] Jund al-Islam[10] Popular Resistance Movement[11] Takfir wal-Hijra[12] Army of Islam[13] Al Furqan Brigades[14] Soldiers of Egypt[15] Islamic State[16] (from 2014) Wilayat Sinai Mujahideen Shura Council[17]
Commanders and leaders
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Mostafa Madbouly Mahmoud Tawfik Mohamed Ahmed Zaki Osama Askar Ashraf Ibrahim Atwa Mahmoud Foaad Abd El- Gawad Mohamed Hegazy Abdul Mawgoud Former Hosni Mubarak (POW) Mohamed Morsi (POW) Adly Mansour Ahmed Shafik Essam Sharaf Kamal Ganzouri Hesham Qandil (POW) Hazem El Beblawi Ibrahim Mahlab Sherif Ismail Mahmoud Wagdy Mansour el-Essawy Mohamed Youssef Ibrahim Ahmed Gamal El Din Mohamed Ibrahim Moustafa Magdy Abdel Ghaffar Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Sedki Sobhy Sami Hafez Anan Mahmoud Hegazy Mohammed Farid Hegazy Mohab Mamish Osama El-Gendi Osama Mounir Rabie Ahmed Khaled Hassan Saeed Reda Mahmoud Hafez Mohamed Younes Hamed Mohamed Abbas Helmy Abd El Aziz Seif-Eldeen Abdul Meniem Al-Toras Aly Fahmy Mohammed Aly Fahmi	Muhammad al-Zawahiri (POW)[21] Abd El-Fattah Salem (POW)[12] Fayez Abu-Sheta †[22] Youssif Abo-Ayat †[23] Saed Abo-Farih †[23] Abu Hajar al-Hashemi (ISIL Emir of Wilayat Sinai) Salim Salma Said Mahmoud al-Hamadin † Abu Osama al-Masri †[24] Shadi el-Manaei Selim Suleiman Al-Haram †[25][26]
Strength
Total: 25,000 (41 battalions)[27]	Total: ≈12,000[28] ISIL: 1,000-1,500
Casualties and losses
3,277 killed (2013-2022) 12,280 injured (2013-2022)[29] IDF: 4 killed[30]	4,059-5,189+ killed [31][32][33]
Civilian fatalities: 1,539+ Egyptian,[34][35] 219 Russians, 4 Ukrainians, 1 Belarusian,[36] 3 South Koreans,[37] 3 Vietnamese, 2 Germans,[38] 1 Croatian[39] Total: 5,853–7,353+ killed

Part of a series on the Egyptian Crisis (2011–2014)
Main topics 2011 Egyptian revolution Sinai insurgency Military transitional council 2012–2013 Egyptian protests Egyptian Constitution of 2012 June 2013 Egyptian protests 2013 Egyptian coup d'état Post-coup unrest in Egypt Insurgency in Egypt
Elections 2011 Egyptian constitutional referendum 2011–12 Egyptian parliamentary election 2012 Egyptian Shura Council election 2012 Egyptian presidential election 2012 Egyptian constitutional referendum 2014 Egyptian constitutional referendum 2014 Egyptian presidential election 2015 Egyptian parliamentary election
Background History of Egypt under Hosni Mubarak History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt Corruption in Egypt
v t e

The Sinai insurgency was an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, launched by Islamist militants against Egyptian security forces, which have also included attacks on civilians.^[40] The insurgency began during the Egyptian Crisis, during which the longtime Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in the 2011 Egyptian revolution.^[41]

The insurgency initially consisted of militants, largely composed of local Bedouin tribesmen, who exploited the chaotic situation in Egypt and weakened central authority to launch a series of attacks on government forces in Sinai. In 2014, elements of the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) and proclaimed themselves Sinai Province, with some security officials stating that militants based in Libya established ties with the Sinai Province group^[42] and blaming the porous border and ongoing civil war for the increase in sophisticated weapons available to the Islamist groups.^[43]

Egyptian authorities attempted to restore their presence in the Sinai through both political and military measures.^[44] The country launched two military operations, known as Operation Eagle in mid-2011 and Operation Sinai in mid-2012. In May 2013, following an abduction of Egyptian officers, violence in the Sinai surged once again. Following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état, which resulted in the ousting of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, "unprecedented clashes" occurred.^[45]

The fallout suffered by locals as a result of the insurgency ranges from militant operations and a state of insecurity to extensive military operations and the demolishing of hundreds of homes, leading to the evacuation of thousands of residents as Egyptian troops pressed on to build a buffer zone meant to halt the smuggling of weapons and militants from and to the Gaza Strip. A report, compiled by a delegation from the state-funded National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), stated that most of the displaced families share the same grievances of palpable government negligence, unavailability of nearby schools, and a lack of health services.^[46] Since the start of the conflict, dozens of civilians were killed, either in military operations or kidnapped and then beheaded by militants. In November 2017, more than 300 Sufist worshippers were killed and over 100 injured in a terrorist attack on a mosque west of the city of Al-Arish.^[40]