Free Republic

Israel’s opposition leader and contender for next prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine and urged him to reconsider, in his most direct criticism yet of the war. Netanyahu said in an interview with USA Today that he thought Putin’s decision to go to war in Ukraine was “guided by his vision of reconstituting a great Russian realm,” adding, “I hope he’s having second thoughts about it.” “We all have sympathy to Ukraine, it’s not even a question, and I’m no different,” he said. Israel has sought not to antagonize Russia in the conflict,...

Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II has assured people that the persecuted and displaced Christians of the Sinai Peninsula can soon return to their homes, saying the Islamic State's attacks were isolated incidents in the country.In an interview broadcast by CBC satellite channel on March 27, Pope Tawadros talked about the string of ISIS attacks targeting Christians in North Sinai last month. He said the jihadist attacks affected not only Egypt’s Christians, but also its police, army, and judiciary, the Independent Catholic News relays. Hundreds of Coptic Christian families left Sinai after seven believers were murdered from Jan. 30 to...

Militants Attack Hotel in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Killing at Least 7 By KAREEM FAHIMNOV. 24, 2015 CAIRO — Islamic State militants attacked a hotel in the northern Sinai Peninsula of Egypt with explosives and gunfire early on Tuesday, killing at least seven people, including a judge, according to security officials, Egyptian state media and a statement by the group. The hotel, the Swiss Inn Resort in El Arish, was housing judges who were monitoring Egypt’s parliamentary elections, an important political milestone for the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The militants were able to penetrate the hotel despite the heavy...

Earlier today the Obama White House attempted to downplay any links to ISIS in relation to the recent Russian airline disaster that took place shortly after Metrojet Flight 9268 took off from Egypt last week on its way back to Russia, killing everyone on board. For days British officials have quietly suggested foul play while U.S. officials were noticeably tight-lipped. Now some within American intelligence are voicing very similar thoughts to their British counterparts, despite the Obama White House’s apparent desire that no official statement on the matter be made. As for Russia’s Vladimir Putin, he is said to be...

Days after authorities dismissed claims that ISIS brought down a Russian passenger jet, a U.S. intelligence analysis now suggests that the terror group or its affiliates planted a bomb on the plane. And the office of British Prime Minister David Cameron says the plane "may well have been brought down by an explosive device." Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed Saturday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula after breaking apart in midair, killing all 224 people on board. It was en route to St. Petersburg from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is quietly reviewing the future of America’s three-decade deployment to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, fearful the lightly equipped peacekeepers could be targets of escalating Islamic State-inspired violence. Options range from beefing up their protection or even pulling them out altogether, officials told The Associated Press. The American forces have helped marshal peace in the peninsula since Egypt’s 1979 historic peace treaty with Israel. Some 700 members of an Army battalion and logistics support unit are currently there. They mainly monitor and verify compliance, and have little offensive capability. Several other countries also provide personnel. Egypt...

Egypt’s new rulers are faced with a terror problem emanating from the Sinai Peninsula, with the emergence of radical jihad groups. The US and international community must support the Egyptian regime to prevent the radical Islamic groups from turning Egypt into the next Syria. On December 24, 2013, deadly bombings hit Mansoura, in Egypt’s Nile Delta region, killing twelve and injuring 134, in Egypt’s worst terrorist attack since the July ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, an al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi vowed to hunt down the perpetrators of the...

A U.S. citizen detained in Egypt for violating curfew in August was found dead Sunday in his jail cell, the second foreigner to die in detention in recent weeks. ... Security officials identified the man as James Henry, 66, a retired U.S. Army officer who arrived in Cairo from the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain on Aug. 25. Henry was detained by army troops in the turbulent region of northern Sinai three days later while making his way to the border crossing with Gaza in the town of Rafah

SNIPPET: "Egyptian security forces have reportedly arrested a number of jihadists operating in the Sinai Peninsula who are linked to Ramzi Mowafi, a former physician for Osama bin Laden. Sources have told Egyptian media outlets that Mowafi's group has been responsible for numerous attacks in the Sinai over the past two years. Among those recently arrested are a Yemeni and a Palestinian who were found in the possession of maps and laptops. In August 2011, Egyptian security officials told CNN that Mowafi, who is also thought to be an explosives expert, was spotted in the Sinai. At the time, Mowafi,...

Egyptian security services arrested on Wednesday a retired U.S. officer and 12 jihadis in Sheikh Zuwayed, North Sinai, German news agency DPA quoted a security source as saying. The U.S. national possessed documents, some including information on Sinai. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. officer is being interrogated by authorities in Arish without giving further details on the documents or circumstances of the arrest. The American national arrested on Tuesday was referred to a military prosecutor in Ismailia to be interrogated, said a security source. A 55-year old American called James Henry was previously arrested, and...

Israeli officials are nervously watching events in Egypt's sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula, worried that a power vacuum in Cairo and the withdrawal of police forces will embolden the Bedouin tribes who help smuggle weapons to Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. In a sign of the rising tensions, Bedouin in the northern Sinai on Friday used rocket-propelled grenades to attack the headquarters of Egypt's state security in El Arish, a town close to Egypt's border crossing into Gaza, according to witnesses. Israel's fear is that with Egypt's police having all but disappeared from the peninsula—after police were asked to step...

Israel's intelligence community has assessed that the fall of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak would result in an immediate crisis with the Jewish state. The most important variable is Egypt's military. Both Mubarak's vice president and the leaders of the new cabinet come from the military, which Mubarak hopes will serve as the last defense against an Islamic takeover. Israeli government sources said the intelligence community has determined that the fall of the Egyptian regime would result in a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government that would sever relations with Israel. The sources said any post-Mubarak regime would try to scuttle or...

Egypt has held what was termed a major military exercise in the Sinai Peninsula that appeared directed against Israel. Officials said the Egyptian military concluded a major exercise in the Sinai on May 23. The five-day exercise, titled Badr-2010, included air, armor, infantry and special forces, and was based on a scenario of an Egyptian attack eastward toward Israel. "Fighter-jets, helicopters, armored units, special forces and paratroopers participated in the maneuvers," Egypt's state-owned Middle East News Agency said. This marked the second major exercise in Sinai in less than a week. On May 20, Egypt's military concluded Nasser-3, an eight-day...

Egyptian security forces uncovered a massive arms cache in central Sinai Peninsula before dawn yesterday, the Egyptian daily Al-Yum a-Saba reported. No details were given about whether the arms were intended for smuggling into the Gaza Strip or where they were from. However, the Egyptian forces suspect the smugglers to be Sinai Bedouin who found and collected weapons following battles and hoped to sneak them into the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian news agency Maan cited Egyptian security sources saying officers discovered a large arms warehouse containing some 100 anti-aircraft missiles, 45 missile launchers, 40 bombs, an RPG missile and other...