Morsi sending more forces to lawless Sinai

The Egyptian army sent reinforcements into the Sinai Peninsula yesterday after President Mohamed Morsi said there would be no talks with militant Islamists who abducted seven members of the security forces last week.

Radical Islamists have expanded into a security vacuum in Sinai that the state has struggled to fill since an uprising swept autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011. The groups have launched attacks on Israel and targets in North Sinai.

The kidnapping has highlighted lawlessness in the peninsula bordering Israel, enraged Egyptian security forces and piled domestic pressure on Morsi to act. Egyptian security forces have blocked border crossings into the Gaza Strip to pressure the government into helping free their colleagues.

Armoured personnel carriers were moving east yesterday over the Suez Canal towards North Sinai where militants staged the abduction and where gunmen assaulted a police base yesterday. They arrived in the North Sinai town of El-Arish, accompanied by the commander of Egypt’s second field army. A military official said the extra military forces were dispatched to Sinai after a meeting on Sunday between the army command and Morsi.