Lures and Endures: How ‘Sinai Province’ Fights in Egypt

Abstract

The chapter focuses on the case of ISIS in Sinai (Sinai Province or SP) and its military capacities. It overviews the development of the predecessors of IS in Sinai, including Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM or Supports of Jerusalem) and al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad in Sinai (TJS or Monotheism and Struggle in Sinai). Despite being massively outnumbered and outgunned, ISIS in Sinai and its predecessors have survived ten years of brutal counterinsurgency and conventional tactics (2011-2021). This makes the case of ISIS in Sinai perhaps the most puzzling. SP has limited resources, even compared with other ISIS provinces. Geographically, its strongholds in the Northeast are not rugged (the peninsula’s high mountains are located in South and Central Sinai). Moreover, SP has limited support among a small, divided population, and it is surrounded by hostile authorities (Egypt, Palestinian Hamas, and Israel). The chapter develops an explanation of SP’s endurance by focusing on its tactics and by drawing upon interviews with former Egyptian army officers and security officials, Sinaian tribal leaders. The chapter also analyzes the Battle of Sheikh Zuweid of July 2015, in which SP executed the most complex military operation conducted by an Egyptian armed nonstate actor in the last one hundred years.