Egyptian army prepares to expand Sinai operation

Army trucks carry Egyptian military tanks in El Arish, Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula The Egyptian army revealed it succeeded on Wednesday in dismantling three explosive devices in the city of Arish in the North Sinai province, two of which were found near a touristic resort while the third was discovered in a public park. A security source [who spoke on condition of anonymity] told Arabstoday that this could be a sign of a change in the strategy adopted by the jihadist groups in the fight against the Egyptian military and security forces, which are currently continuing a campaign aimed at expelling those groups from Sinai.
"The Jihadists have realised their inability in open confrontations against the state's forces, so it looks like they have stopped the militant attacks against the security checkpoints and started to put explosive devices at different locations instead in order to make the residents panic," the source said.
He added that the security forces are currently sweeping the suspected areas in north Sinai searching for any hidden explosive devices. especially in the roads used by the security and military vehicles.
The source said that the frequent attacks which the Jihadists used to carry out against the security checkpoints in the province have stopped in the last 48 hours, adding that the checkpoint in the al-Rayissa region has been supplied with a powerful lighting system in order to help the soldiers to spot the attacks. The al-Rayissa  checkpoint has been targeted 32 times during the last two years.
The source revealed the Egyptian army is currently preparing for a broad operation in Sinai aimed at targeting a number of what he described as "terrorist cells," saying that this operation will be finished in a relatively short time.
He asserted that the recent military and security deployment in Sinai closed all routes of logistic support to the militant groups.
He stressed that the army's withdrawal of some of its tanks which were sent earlier to the border area between Egypt and Israel known as "Sector C" is not an indication that the military campaign in Sinai is coming to an end. "The campaign will continue, and will be expanded in the coming few days," he said.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday said he expected the Egyptian army to withdraw its reinforcements from the Sinai peninsula at the end of its operation to root out Islamist militants.
"They must act against terror and if they have to bring in troops, let them do so. And when it ends, they must take them out," Barak said in an interview with Israel's army radio.
"I assume that is what they will do. We will wait and see."
He said Israel had "several reservations" over Egypt's deployment of reinforcements in the lawless peninsula, some of which fell outside the terms of the 1979 peace treaty which limits the number of Egyptian troops there.
"We have several reservations over the fact it breaches some of the practical dimensions (of the treaty) in terms of deployment and coordination, which require reaching an understanding," he said.
"We are working towards reaching understandings," he said.
"We hope that an understanding will take shape between us and the Egyptians that this is the way to work," he said.
Egypt began an unprecedented military operation in the peninsula earlier this month after militants killed 16 Egyptian border police in northern Sinai in a deadly attack on August 5.
While Israel welcomed the move, many commentators have raised fears that the temporary presence of large numbers of troops in Sinai, in contravention of the peace treaty's military appendix, could become permanent -- spelling trouble for the Jewish state.
But Barak dismissed such fears.
"I'm not a party to such alarm," he said. "We have to act responsibly: where there is an infringement, we must act to set it right. There's no place for making a fuss but for holding direct contacts with the right elements in Egypt, and that is what we are doing."
Last week, an Israeli newspaper said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sent sent a sharply-worded message to Cairo via Washington calling for the immediate removal of Egyptian tanks deployed in northern Sinai.
The premier also demanded that Egypt stop bringing troops into the peninsula without prior coordination with Israel, which constituted a "serious breach of the peace agreement," a high-ranking Israeli source told the paper.