Sinai insurgency

The Sinai insurgency was an insurgency campaign waged in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt by Islamist militants against Egyptian security forces, and it also included attacks on civilians. It began during the Egyptian Crisis that followed the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in the 2011 Egyptian revolution. At first the militants were mainly local Bedouin tribesmen who exploited the chaos in Egypt, but in 2014 members of Ansar Bait al-Maqdis pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and proclaimed themselves Sinai Province. The Egyptian state answered with political measures and with military operations, including Operation Eagle in 2011 and Operation Sinai in 2012, and violence rose again after the abduction of Egyptian officers in 2013 and the removal of President Mohamed Morsi. Troops demolished homes and evacuated residents to build a buffer zone against smuggling to and from Gaza. In November 2017 more than 300 Sufi worshippers were killed in an attack on a mosque west of Al-Arish.