TIMELINE: The Sinai Insurgency

This timeline traces the progression of militant attacks on state targets in the Sinai Peninsula. These include attacks on police officers, soldiers, judges, and other personnel connected to the Egyptian state. Attacks on civilians have been omitted.  

 

2014

The Sinai insurgency, headed by Ansar Bayt al-Maqis, took advantage of local dissatisfaction with Cairo and relative weakness of the armed forces following the Arab Spring and the Morsi coup. The campaign focused on state targets – institutions the militant group believed to be illegitimate – like police officers, soldiers, and local judges. It was successful, at least at the onset; 2014 was a deadly year for Egyptian security forces operating in Sinai.

 

January 4 – One soldier killed in an attack on an armored vehicle south of El Arish.

January 25 – Five soldiers died in helicopter crash in an operation against militants. Ansar Bayt al-Maqis subsequently claims to have downed the helicopter using a rocket.

January 26 – Four army recruits are killed, nine others injured in an attack on a bus in Matla in central Sinai.

January 31 – A policeman killed by gunmen in Meliz.

February 16 – Three tourists and a bus driver killed in a suicide bombing on a bus in Taba.

March 6 – A policeman killed on his way home from work in Arish.

March 30 – An army APC is attacked near Sheikh Zuweid, resulting in one death and three injuries.

April 3 – A Central Security Forces officer is killed in Rafah. Ansar Beit al-Maqdes claims the attack.

May 2 – A suicide bomber attacks a police checkpoint killing two and injuring five in El-Tur. Elsewhere near Sharm el-Sheikh, a suicide bombing kills one tourist and injures four others.

May 11 – An army conscript killed by militants in Sheikh Zuweid.

May 23 – One Central Security Forces officer and two conscripts killed just south of the Rafah border crossing.

May 28 – A soldier dies after being shot in the chest by militants in Rafah.

June 11 – A soldier killed and two others injured in a militant attack on El Arish.

June 28 – Four members of the Central Security Forces killed by militants in Rafah.

July 9 – A soldier killed by a roadside bomb near El Arish.

July 14 – A soldier and seven civilians killed in a mortar attack on a military installation near El Arish.

July 18 – A police officer shot dead by militants near El Arish.

July 25 – Two members of the Central Security Forces killed by gunmen near Sheikh Zuweid.

September 2 – Eleven security personnel – mostly police officers– are killed by an IED near Sheikh Zuweid.

September 3 – A police officer shot dead by militants in El Arish.

September 8 – A police officer shot dead by militants in El Arish.

September 12 – An army conscript killed in El Arish.

At this point in the insurgency, the Egypt government puts the death toll in the security services at 664 from January 2011 to April 2014.

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