Officer killed, 4 soldiers injured on Monday in potential 1st South Sinai militant attack since 2019

A Monday attack on a military vehicle near St. Catherine in South Sinai left one Armed Forces officer dead and four border guard unit soldiers injured, according to a security source who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

The Armed Forces are yet to issue a statement on the incident.

Channels affiliated with the Islamic State have claimed responsibility for the attack through the Province of Sinai, the Islamic State-affiliate in Egypt. However, the militant group is yet to release an official statement on the attack.

If the Province of Sinai carried out Monday’s attack, it would be the first time the militants have targeted an area in South Sinai in nearly four years.

Monday’s clash occurred in the evening when militants opened fire on a military vehicle driving on an international road near the town of St. Catherine. Two officers and three conscripts from a South Sinai border guard battalion were riding in the vehicle at the time of the attack, according to the security source. A firefight between the two sides ensued. Amr Shehab Aboul Nil, a lieutenant in a reserve officers unit who had just 20 days of military service left, was killed in the exchange of fire. Four other soldiers — a lieutenant colonel and three conscripts — were also left injured.

Monday evening’s attack comes as the government celebrates “the failure” of terrorism in North Sinai, a return to “normalcy” and the launch of development projects worth billions of Egyptian pounds.

The Armed Forces and pro-state militias have largely curtailed Province of Sinai operations in North Sinai over the last year. The militant group has been pushed out or seen its numbers drastically reduced in former strongholds in the east of the governorate. However, that does not mean the militant group has been completely stamped out, a fact that the president acknowledged during an inspection of construction equipment owned by the Armed Forces.

Militants have largely relocated to central Sinai, from which they have launched a series of attacks in East Qantara, which falls administratively within the Ismailia Governorate though it is located within the Sinai peninsula. In the largest of these incidents, militants launched an attack near Sinai University in Ismailia. Two Armed Forces personnel were killed and a university student was injured in the firefight.

The Province of Sinai have not carried out any noted attacks in South Sinai for about four years, though local sources point to videos and pictures recently published by the Province of Sinai as evidence that the group retains a presence in the peninsula’s southern governorate and is able to move freely in the Maghara mountain range and near the Maghara mine.

The last recorded operation carried out by the Province of Sinai in South Sinai came in 2019, when militants attacked the Oyoun Moussa police station. The Interior Ministry announced at the time that the militants had been killed, while the Province of Sinai claimed responsibility for the attack and announced that one of its members, Abu Mohamed al-Mohajer, had been killed. Mohajer’s nom de guerre, meaning “migrant,” suggested he had joined the group from outside Egypt. The Union of Sinai Tribes noted at the time that Mohajer was German and had come to Egypt via Russia to join the Province of Sinai after failing to enter Iraq and Syria.