Source: The Washington Post<\/p>\n
CAIRO \u2014<\/span>\u00a0Egyptian security forces launched a major military operation against a tenacious Islamic State affiliate in the country\u2019s restive northern Sinai Peninsula and other areas on Friday.<\/p>\n In ordering the most comprehensive offensive in years, the government has called on all branches of the security forces to respond. Soldiers and police were dispatched to tighten control of land borders, and warships were deployed along the coast to \u201ccut the terrorists\u2019 supply lines and ensure they do not get backup,\u201d the military said in a statement.<\/p>\n The offensive\u2019s goal, the military added, was to \u201ctighten control of the country\u2019s crossing points with neighboring countries and to cleanse the areas that are terrorist strongholds to safeguard the Egyptian people from the evils of terrorism and extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n The military operation comes ahead of a presidential election next month and as Islamist extremists continue to stage attacks around the country.<\/p>\n The offensive marks the most ambitious effort yet by President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi to tackle the Islamic State\u2019s Sinai branch, one of several deadly affiliates that are seeking to fill the void left by the group\u2019s recent defeats in Syria and Iraq. Less than three months ago, Islamic State militants were widely believed to have killed more than 350 people at a mosque in the northern Sinai. That prompted Sissi to issue an ultimatum to the security forces to put an end to terrorism and extend a state of emergency in January for three more months.<\/p>\n \u201cI follow with pride the heroic actions of my sons in the armed forces and police to clear Egypt\u2019s territory of terrorist elements,\u201d Sissi posted on his Facebook page Friday.<\/p>\n The number of terrorist attacks has been at its highest since the 1990s, when Islamist extremists launched regular assaults on police, tourists and government officials. That prompted a severe crackdown by the security forces of then-President Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of suspected Islamists were arrested, deported or executed.<\/p>\n The violence began in the summer of 2013 after Egypt\u2019s military overthrew the elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. The following year, months after Sissi took office, militants in the northern Sinai pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Since then, the affiliate, known as Wilayat Sinai, has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers in a guerrilla war.<\/p>\n In recent months, even as Egypt\u2019s military claims to have killed more than 2,500 militants, the attacks have spread to other parts of the country. Friday\u2019s operation stretched into the Nile Delta and the Western Desert, and it appears that other Islamist extremists and criminal groups also are being targeted.<\/p>\n