Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — The Egyptian Army plans to send two infantry battalions to
the turbulent Sinai Peninsula.

Officials said Egyptian Defense Minister Abdul Fatah Sisi has approved
the deployment of an additional two Army battalions to protect strategic
interests in Sinai.

The officials said the deployment of the battalions, or about 1,000 soldiers, would take place in the eastern portion of Sinai near the border with Israel and the Gaza Strip.

“The units will arrive imminently,” a security source said.

[On July 15, the Egyptian Army announced the interception of a shipment of Soviet-origin Katyusha rockets. The Army said 19 BM-21 Grad rockets as well as other munitions were seized some 60 kilometers north of Cairo.]

The officials said the deployment was coordinated with Israel as part of
the 1979 peace treaty that demilitarized Sinai. The treaty required Israeli
approval for any forces in eastern Sinai.

One battalion was set to operate in the Northern Sinai capital of El
Arish, the target of daily attacks by Al Qaida-aligned forces. The
insurgency forces, which included Palestinians from the Gaza
Strip, have been attacking military and Central Security Forces in the city
and at El Arish International Airport. On July 16, unidentified insurgents
fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns in an attack on an Egyptian
Army camp outside Rafah.

The second battalion would be located in Rafah, divided between
Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Officials said this battalion would focus on both
counter-insurgency as well as blocking tunnel smuggling from Gaza to Sinai.

Officials said the decision to deploy the two battalions reflected an
intelligence assessment that the bulk of the insurgency in Sinai stemmed
from El Arish and Rafah. They said the Army’s goal would be to block the
flow of weapons and fighters from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip while isolate
and destroy insurgency strongholds.

“The need exists for a good-sized mobile force that could rapidly
respond to any incident as well as maintain intensive counter-terrorism
operations,” the source said.

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