Questions Exist About The Sinai Attack On Egypt And Egypt's Retaliation

In the face of last weeks terrorist attack in the Sinai that resulted in the death of 16 Egyptian soldiers and various opinions on Egypt's retaliation and its implications, Challah Hu Akbar asks a contrarian question: Is Egypt Waging A Campaign Against Terrorists in the Sinai? Maybe Not

He has compiled a list of some of incongruities:

• Journalists from both CNN and Al-Jazeera were questioning statements from the Egyptian government
  
  
• National Public Radio correspondent Leila Fadel found no evidence of fighting at a village where intense fighting was reported between Egypt's military and terrorists.
  
  
• Egypt Independent reported that the military uniforms on the bodies of the Rafah checkpoint attackers were apparently made in Nablus
  
  
• While there are reports that Cairo demanded that Hamas officials hand over 3 senior member of the Army of Islam terror group, just a day before it was reported Egypt demanded the extradition of 3 senior members of Hamas’s armed wing Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades--a report that Hamas denied.

Read the whole thing.

Now I see that Amos Harel of Haaretz is also advising Caution on Evaluating Egyptian Government Statements on Terrorist Incidents:

I think we should be very careful about the Egyptian accusations against Hamas. Note that Israeli intelligence sources refused to confirm this information. The relationship between Gaza and fundamentalist Islamic elements in Sinai is deep, but I can't see Hamas (or even splinter groups like the Popular Resistance Committees) going for such a blunt move against Cairo. My guess is that in the end, all we'll know for sure is that some Gazan group helped the attack logistically. I would also look at the Hezbollah connection: remember those dozens of Hezbollah operatives jailed by Mubarak for presumably attempting to blow up ships in the Suez Cannel, then released immediately after the revolution? It's assumed that some of them went to Sinai. Anyway, impressive as they now seem, we'll have to see if the Egyptian steps against the terrorist group will continue for more than a few weeks.[emphasis added]

While no one thought the attack and Israel-Egyptian cooperation in dealing with it would lead to a long term thaw between them, there were indications that the the attack and Hamas apparent involvement signaled the end of the apparent honeymoon between the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Now, it appears that there are even more unanswered questions than originally thought.

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Technorati Tag: Egypt and Gaza and Hamas and Sinai.