AL-ARISH, Egypt, Aug 13 (Reuters) – A group of armed men
shot dead a tribal leader and his son on Monday in Egypt’s Sinai
peninsula on the border with Israel, a security source said, as
violence escalated on the sixth day of a military crackdown on
militants in the area.
“Tribal leader Khalaf Al-Menahy and his son were shot dead
by militants on their way back from a conference organised by
tribal leaders to denounce militancy,” said the security source
in Sinai.
The attack occurred during a security sweep that began on
Wednesday after the killing of 16 Egyptian border guards on Aug.
5, which Egypt blamed on militants.
The military operation is the biggest in the region since
Egypt’s 1973 war with Israel.
Lawlessness has been growing in Sinai, a region awash with
guns and bristling with resentment against Cairo, since the
overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in an uprising last year. Parts of
northern Sinai have been controlled by Bedouin tribes since
police deserted the area during the uprising.
Another source close to militants in Sinai said hundreds of
them had organised a secret meeting on Sunday night to discuss
their response to the killing of five Islamist militants by
Egyptian soldiers earlier on Sunday.
“They agreed that the reaction will be harsh,” the source
said.
The military crackdown in the Sinai peninsula is seen as an
early test for Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi – a moderate
Islamist elected in June- to prove he can rein in the militants
whose activity near the border worries both Egyptians and
Israel.
Mursi dismissed two top generals on Sunday, quashing a
military order that had ruled the transition period after
Mubarak and curbed Mursi’s presidential powers. Last week, he
fired North Sinai’s governor and Egypt’s intelligence
chief.[ID:nL6E8JC57B, ID:nL6E8J7EN1]
Mursi’s critics say the Islamist leader risks being seen as
soft on jihadists because he is from the Muslim Brotherhood, a
political movement that has ties to the Hamas government in Gaza
and a history of hostile rhetoric towards Israel.
(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed in Al-Arish and Ahmed Tolba in
Cairo. Writing by Yasmine Saleh; editing by Christopher Wilson)
