ISIL Sinai.

This is coolbert:

From DEBKAfile some updates on the current fighting as continuing between the forces of the Egyptian army and those Salafists as having previously pledged support and allegiance to the Caliph of the Islamic State.

The Sinai peninsula currently a theater of war, NONE OF THIS REPORTED IN THE AMERICAN MAIN STREAM MEDIA.

1. "ISIS-Sinai claimed firing three Grads [BM-21] at 'Jewish positions'"

3 July

"The Sinai branch of ISIS reported Friday night: 'Three Grad rockets [BM-21] were fired at Jewish positions in occupied Palestine.' The fragments of two rockets were found on open ground in the Eshkol district. There were no casualties or damage. This is the first time that ISIS's Sinai arm has shot rockets deep inside Israel and not at Eilat, as in several former incidents"

Grad 122 mm rocket artillery.

2. "Israeli policymakers cause alarm by over-reliance of Egypt to grapple with Hamas and ISIS"
   
3 July.

"The statements coming from different Israeli spokesmen this week on Egypt, ISIS and Hamas were at dangerous variance with the actual events on their back door."

3. "Egyptian president visits troops in embattled N. Sinai"

4 July

"President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inspected troops and police in the North Sinai Saturday on the third day of the biggest offensive launched by the Sinai Province branch of ISIS, leaving hundreds of dead and wounded on both sides."

 4. "ISIS rushes reinforcements to Egypt. Its next targets: The Pyramids and Sphinx"

5 July

"The Islamic State is rushing reinforcements to Egypt from Libya and Iraq on the fifth day of its battle with Egyptian forces in northern Sinai . . . Both sides claim the upper hand, but the struggle is not over . . . only one percent of the Egyptian army of 300,000 men had been assigned to Sinai.
Clearly, substantial military and intelligence resources are earmarked for defending the Suez Canal and Cairo, while the smaller Sinai force is restricted to defending three enclaves"

The pyramids and the sphinx examples of jahhaliya. According to the jihadist of the Salafist persuasion a form of ignorance that existed before the time of Mohammad!

5. "Egyptian army backed by Apaches kills 241 Islamists"

6 July

"The heavy fighting between the Egyptian army and Islamic State in northern Sinai is evolving on its sixth day into an asymmetrical contest . . . the Egyptians were depending heavily on Apache helicopter air strikes, while the Islamist terrorists had turned to guerrilla tactics for foot soldiers to strike by night and mount ambushes by day. The Apaches are attacking any moving object, while ISIS keeps Egyptian soldiers pinned down. ISIS has lost 241 men, but can keep going in the long term thanks to a constant influx of manpower and war materiel and its hide-and-seek tactics."

Asymmetric warfare. Helicopter gunships and long-range weapons fire used by one combatant, the IED and the EFP used by the other combatant. [Improvised explosive device and explosive formed projectile]

6. "A roadside bomb wounds 15 Egyptian police in N. Sinai"
   
9 July

"A bus carrying Egyptian police officers on leave was blown up by a remotely-controlled bomb outside North Sinai's provincial capital of El Arish Thursday. The attack took place as the Egyptian military fights an Islamic State, Bedouin-backed offensive in northern Sinai."

The IED, the EFP. As it was in Iraq so it is to in the Sinai.

One ship sunk and out of action, blocking the Suez Canal and the disruption to the world economy would be enormous. Also don't forget that American peacekeeping force in the Sinai perhaps in mortal danger.

 coolbert.