EL-ARISH, Egypt — The terrorist attacks that took place in the Sinai Peninsula on Jan. 29 have revealed the size of the difficulties faced by the army in confronting the terrorist “Wilayat Sinai” organization. Despite this, the Egyptian government continues to praise the great achievements made in eradicating this organization.

These organized and qualitative attacks targeted 10 military headquarters and bases in three different cities at the same time, including the largest headquarters of the army in Sinai, known as Battalion 101, in el-Arish. The attacks left more than 35 military personnel dead and 70 others wounded. This led to a trust crisis and raised the ire of the Egyptian people; meanwhile, military commanders made speeches confirming their control of Sinai and progress toward the eradication of terrorism.

The Egyptian government met the public outrage with a series of accusations against foreign military forces that were supposed to have entered Sinai to carry out these organized and professional strikes to harm Egypt. The government demanded the support of the Egyptian people in their war against those lurking around Egypt.

During the Misr Fi Yawm TV show, broadcast on Egyptian satellite channel Dream, Maj. Gen. Ahmed Rajai Attia, founder of the Task Force 777 of the Egyptian army, said, “Those who carried out the recent fierce operations are military forces [affiliated with] Hamas and coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Syria, under the leadership and planning of the West and the CIA.” Attia ruled out that terrorists were behind the operations.