Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Egypt has begun sending thousands of troops into the
turbulent Sinai Peninsula.

Officials said the Egyptian Army was sending scores of combat units to
Sinai for another counter-insurgency offensive. They said the Army
reinforcements were searching for seven officers abducted on May 16 near the
border with Israel and the Gaza Strip.

“Our patience has run out,” a military official said.

Officials said the new deployment began on May 20 after the failure of
negotiations with suspected Islamist militias for the release of the seven
officers. They said the militias demanded the release of fighters detained
in 2011 for the assassination of five security officers in Sinai.

The latest Army offensive, the first since August 2012, has been
accompanied by an airborne search for militia strongholds in central and
eastern Sinai. Officials said the Egyptian Air Force has deployed up to 10
combat and utility helicopters, while the army sent more than 40 armored
personnel carriers and armored fighting vehicles.

“All options are on the table to free the kidnapped soldiers,” Egyptian
presidential spokesman Omar Amr said.

The Sinai operation has been ordered by President Mohammed Morsi.
Officials said Morsi has been convening his military and security
command to coordinate what they termed an effective campaign against
thousands of Bedouin and Palestinian fighters in Sinai.

As late as May 18, officials said, Morsi cautioned his military
commanders not to attack insurgency strongholds in Sinai. North Sinai Gov.
Abdul Fatah Harhour said he received a telephone call from Morsi that called
for restraint and “avoidance of bloodshed.” But they said the response of
Egyptian police, who rampaged through airports and border terminals in
search of Palestinians, led to a reversal of Morsi’s decision.

The offensive was expected to include the area along the 14-kilometer
Sinai border with the Gaza Strip, believed to have harbored some of the
abductors. Officials acknowledged that police and Central Security Forces
were blocking all passage of people and goods through the Rafah Border
Terminal as well as striking at five police stations in Sinai.

Officials said the Egyptian offensive was not being coordinated neither
with Hamas nor Israel. For its part, Hamas, in an effort to ease tension
with Cairo, has closed all smuggling tunnels to Sinai and declared the
border a closed military zone.

“I was contacted by a number of people who were held hostage and
suffered greatly and were shot at by Egyptian police,” Hamas Interior
Ministry spokesman Islam Shahwan said.

  Islamist militias, Mohammed Morsi, Morsi orders troops into Sinai after abduction of officers, Omar Amr, Rafah Border Terminal