Weeks, Christopher Black Flag over Sinai

Egypt Versus ISIS, 2011–2023

A volume from the series Middle East @ War. The Egyptian Sinai Peninsula had long had a difficult relationship with the central government in Cairo. Cairo regarded it as a barren border region inhabited by independent-minded Bedouin tribes, treated it as a militarized buffer zone during the Arab-Israeli wars from 1948 to 1973, and failed to integrate it economically or politically into the rest of the country. In the early 2000s, radicalized Bedouins from the Sinai launched an Al Qaeda-inspired terrorist campaign against the state. After the Arab Spring revolution of 2011, the fighting intensified dramatically as the central government's control waned. The Egyptian army moved in to wage war within its borders for the first time in modern history. From 2011 to 2023, it waged a bitter battle against jihadist and Bedouin opponents. The local terrorist group joined the Islamic State in 2014 and became one of its deadliest offshoots, strengthened by the combat experience and resources of the global jihadist movement. For nearly a decade, control of the Sinai was at stake as Cairo struggled to maintain control of the peninsula. Ultimately, the Egyptian military prevailedthrough brutal force, solid counterinsurgency tactics, and covert Israeli airstrikes. Islamic State was defeated in Sinai, but whether Cairo can win peace through the region's full development remains to be seen. Black Flag Over Sinai is the first English-language book to comprehensively cover the insurgency in Sinai, drawing on both Egyptian military and terrorist sources.