News Analysis: Egypt's military has upper hand over IS in Sinai anti-terror war

The Egyptian military has the upper hand in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula and attempts to end the Sinai-based militants affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group, said Egyptian security experts.

The anti-government militants in Sinai have brought the IS shadow to Egypt after the Sinai-based, al-Qaida-inspired Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM) group changed its name to "Sinai State" in late 2014 and declared loyalty to the militant group and its chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Over the past few years, the Egyptian army has been carrying out a massive anti-terror campaign in restive North Sinai province, particularly in the cities of Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, where most of the militant hideouts exist.

The declining anti-government terror operations in Sinai shows that the Egyptian military's crackdown on the region's militants and its methods of besieging them and raiding their dens started to bear fruits.

"The Egyptian intelligence and security apparatuses managed to a great extent to launch fierce and crushing strikes against terrorist organizations in Sinai," said Talaat Musallam, a strategic and security expert and former armed forces general.

The expert stressed that the progress proves the ability of the intelligence to penetrate and monitor the terror groups, their activities and sources of finance.

"The army is getting close to a full control of the Sinai State militant group after managing to cut off its ties and resource, attempting to liquidate its members to put an end to the group," Musallam told Xinhua.

Self-proclaimed "Islamist" extremist groups grew in Egypt following the military removal of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule.

The later security crackdown on Morsi's supporters, mostly from the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, left over 1,000 killed and thousands more arrested.

Since then, terror activities have killed hundreds of police and military men nationwide, particularly in North Sinai, mostly claimed by the IS-affiliated militants.

Meanwhile, the security campaigns in the peninsula, part of the country's "war against terrorism," killed over 1,000 militants and arrested a similar number of suspects.

The Egyptian security authorities imposed a renewable curfew and a state of emergency in North Sinai since October 2014 and evacuated over 1,000 houses to create a buffer zone at borders with the Palestinian Gaza Strip, whose ruling movement Hamas is believed to have provided training, arms and shelter for Sinai anti-government militants.

"Egypt's success in demolishing the smuggling network of tunnels between Sinai and Gaza rid the Sinai State militant group of the ability to maneuver, hide and counterattack through the tunnels," the ex-military general told Xinhua. Endit