Military spokesperson urges police to treat people well to combat terrorism

Military spokesperson Mohamed Samir held a meeting with Central Security Forces on Wednesday, in which he warned them of the conspiracies against Egypt and asserted the best way to counter them is by treating people well and not allowing divisions to occur in society, local media reported.

The Ministry of Defense announced Samir’s meeting with “the fighters from Central Security,” as part of an initiative by the defense and interior ministries to  “raise the combat efficiency of the fighters and to unify the concepts and strategies in the field of fighting terrorism.”

Samir told the forces Egypt is facing “fourth-generation warfare” that aims to destroy nations by propagating rumors and creating divisions.

He asserted that the only way to combat this kind of war is for military and police to observe good manners, follow their consciences and “treat people as they would like to be treated.”

The concept fourth-generation warfare has been used to describe the battle against modern terrorism; a battle in which it is perceived that counterinsurgency techniques should involve not just military tactics, but also a wider counterinsurgency plan including various political, social and economic tactics and propaganda — the winning of hearts and minds. 

The spokesperson's comments come amid a resurgence in public anger over police brutality following several recent deaths, allegedly as a result of police torture.

A wave of protests started in Luxor last month after a detainee died in police custody and videos of his bruised body circulated online. During the same week, the death of a veterinarian in Ismailia after he was assaulted by a police officer caused uproar in the governorate.

In a recent speech at the police academy, president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asserted that violations within the police are only individual practices and don’t reflect on the institution as a whole.