Egypt 2007-2016 (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

Via FP's e-briefing:

There are about 700 U.S. troops currently serving as observers in the northern part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as part of a decades-old peace pact between Egypt and Israel. But they may soon pull out of that base and move to another outpost further south. The move would come as a result of growing American concerns over the dangers presented by the Islamic State on the peninsula, though U.S. officials stress no final decision has been made.

Based on this report:http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/05/politics/us-sinai-deployment-egypt-israel/?

A couple of weeks ago the UK announced a temporary deployment of engineers to help the MFO at a new base. That 'special relationship' again.

[davidbfpo]

Dr Omar Ashour's latest article on the insurgency in Sinai includes the MFO and this "Oh sh*t" incident:

Earlier this month, two artillery shells landed in the gym of the MFO’s North Camp near El-Gora village at around 3am. Another mortar shell landed a few days later, destroyed a vehicle and injured a soldier. The US was able to work out the coordinates of the source of the shelling and it turned out to be the positions of the regular army. Apparently, it was "friendly fire" or a mistake.

Link:http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opi...074317507.html

[davidbfpo]

After a quick review I have merged several threads to create a catch all thread for historical matters Egypt / Egyptian up till the end of 2016. One of the threads was for Sinai. This thread had 85 posts an 52.9k views. There will be new thread for 2017 onwards.

It maybe useful to view previous threads of value are:

1) Arab armies and the 'Arab Spring' http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=17859

2) Arab Spring Phase 3? http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=17692

3) Egypt's Spring Revolution (now closed) http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=12371

4) The transformation of the Arab World (which looks at the wider impact and the impact on AQ) http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=16634