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Friday, May 23, 2008

U.S. military takes a look at Egypt, Gaza, Israel border areas

CAIRO — The U.S. military has intensified efforts to improve Egyptian security along the borders with Israel and the Gaza Strip.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has conducted a series of tours along the eastern Sinai Peninsula.

Egyptian sources said the military tours were meant to examine Egyptian security deployment and propose measures along the borders with Israel and the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

[On Thursday, an Islamic Jihad insurgent detonated a truck laden with explosives near the Erez border crossing along the Israel-Gaza border, Middle East Newsline reported. The truck failed to reach the Israeli side of the crossing and the explosion damaged buildings on the Palestinian side of the border.]

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"The U.S. military has been determining manpower and equipment needs to protect these borders from infiltration and terrorism," an Egyptian source said.

In May 2008, a U.S. military team conducted two examinations of the Sinai border. On May 21, officers, headed by the U.S. Air Force attache in the U.S. embassy in Cairo, toured Egypt's borders and inspected the Rafah terminal and Israel's Keren Shalom facility.

The U.S. delegation was said to have examined the reconstructed Egyptian border fence along the Gaza Strip. The sources said the delegation did not interview local Egyptian commanders.

Earlier in May, the same delegation visited the Gaza and Israeli borders. At the same time, the U.S. Army was said to have begun training Egyptian officers to stop weapons smuggling and infiltration into Israel and the Gaza Strip.

In early 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drafted a geological assessment of Palestinian smuggling networks. The Bush administration has approved $23 million for Egypt to procure advanced detection equipment and robots to block smuggling.

"So far, the equipment has not been delivered," David Makovsky, senior fellow at the Washington Institute, told the House Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia on May 21. "Failure to expedite delivery sends an unfortunate signal that the United States is not serious about this issue."


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