US to send 75 more soldiers to Sinai after MFO attack

The United States will dispatch at least 75 soldiers to Sinai to bolster its peacekeeping forces there, defense officials said Thursday, potentially putting to rest speculation that the US could withdraw its forces from the embattled peninsula altogether.

The deployment comes on the heels of an attack on Multinational Force of Observers (MFO) troops in North Sinai on September 3. A homemade bomb detonated near an MFO vehicle carrying two peacekeepers from Fiji, who were in a support-and-recovery convoy near a security checkpoint. When four American peacekeepers went to their aid, they were hit by a second blast.

All six peacekeepers were evacuated by air to Israel to receive medical treatment, an MFO statement said the next day.

The US now plans to deploy a light-infantry platoon and a surgical team, as well as support equipment including surveillance devices, the Associated Press reported.

The MFO was established in 1979 as part of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. The US contributes about 700 security personnel as part of the 12-nation force. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told AP that the US government has been in ongoing talks to beef up protection for its forces in Sinai. In August, however, AP had reported that the US was considering pulling its troops out of the peninsula altogether, news that riled up Egyptian army figures who accused the US of a potential breach of the 1979 accords.

Since it was first deployed to Sinai, the MFO has typically been a lightly armed and secured unit. However, concerns for the troops’ safety began to mount when security drastically deteriorated in the peninsula after the 2011 revolution.

The situation worsened after former President Mohamed Morsi was toppled in 2013, and Sinai became submerged in a battle between local militant groups and security forces. The Armed Forces, the police and members of the judiciary have been the primary targets, with most attacks carried out by the Province of Sinai — a militant group formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdes that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State last November.

MFO troops have increasingly been caught in the crossfire between Egyptian soldiers and Sinai militants. In June, six armed men fired rockets at the MFO-operated Gora Airport. The Province of Sinai claimed responsibility for the attack. In August 2014, an American MFO soldier was shot in the arm in an assault on the MFO headquarters, while an MFO patrol unit in the Gora region was attacked in November 2012.

On the same day as the most recent MFO attack, the US Embassy in Cairo issued a security warning to its citizens in Egypt, advising them to avoid travel to areas outside of Cairo and Alexandria. US citizens were also barred from travel to the Western Desert or anywhere in Sinai outside Sharm el-Sheikh.