Egypt’s Sisi steps up offensive against Sinai militants
Egyptian air strikes and ground operations killed 63 jihadists in the volatile region on Sunday, according to security sources, a day after Sisi announced that more than 200 insurgents had been killed in recent days.
The Sinai has recently witnessed some of the heaviest fighting between security forces and Islamist militants since the army toppled president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.
Sisi rallied troops in El-Arish, the provincial capital, in an unannounced visit on Saturday.
In remarks broadcast on television, Sisi said: "To say that everything is under control is not enough. The situation is totally stable."
Dressed in military garb for the first time since becoming president just over a year ago, he was also shown inspecting captured weapons.
The Islamic State (IS) group’s Egyptian affiliate has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Morsi’s ouster.
Though the vast peninsula has long been a security headache for Egypt and its neighbours, the removal of Morsi brought new violence.
On Monday, a car bomb in Cairo killed Egypt’s top prosecutor, the highest-profile official to die since the insurgency began.
Egyptian government officials have accused Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood of links to the Sinai attacks. The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful movement that wants to reverse what it calls a military coup through street protests.
Egypt’s interior ministry said on Sunday it had arrested 12 Brotherhood members who it claimed had formed three cells with the intention of carrying out attacks on policemen, soldiers and military and police bases.
Stamping out ‘false’ military death tolls
The government meanwhile said it could take legal action against journalists who report "false" military death tolls in jihadist attacks that contradict official statements, as per a new anti-terrorism law.
Sisi called for tougher laws following his prosecutor’s assassination last week, and he is expected to approve the law within days.
The country's press syndicate has denounced the law, saying it amounted to censorship.
Article 33 of the draft law, published in several Egyptian newspapers, stipulates a minimum two-year sentence for "reporting false information on terrorist attacks that contradicts official statements".
The law also opens up the possibility of deportation and house arrest.
Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zind said the law was prompted in part by coverage of IS group attacks on Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula on July 1.
The military spokesman said 21 soldiers and more than 100 militants were killed in the attacks and ensuing clashes, after security officials said dozens more soldiers had been killed.
The government has accused foreign media who reported the higher death toll of exaggerating troop casualties.
"The day of the attack in Sinai some sites published 17, then 25, then 40, then 100 dead," Zind said.
Much of the media in Egypt has been supportive of the government, but the country's Journalists Syndicate condemned what it called "new restrictions on press freedoms" in the draft law.
"This is a dangerous article that violates the constitution," the union said in a statement.
"It violates the reporter's right to seek information from various sources... it allows the executive authorities to act as censors, and the judges of truth," it said.
Two reporters in Egypt, including Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, are on trial for their work with the Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera, which has been accused of supporting the banned Islamists.
A third, Australian Peter Greste, has been deported. They were all initially sentenced to up to 10 years in prison but later won a retrial.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)
