BEYOND SYRIA IRAQ

SINAI PROVINCE
In the aftermath of President Mohamed Morsi’s fall in 2013, the military
government cracked down on these smuggling operations, cutting off a vital
economic pipeline for the community and inspiring ABM to exact revenge.
With the uptick in Egyptian military operations and strikes on many IS-held
areas, ABM decided to pledge allegiance to the group as an Egyptian province.
This move provided a large burst of publicity, pushing ABM into the international
media. The new IS contacts also increased the professionalism of the
organization’s online media content; these materials carried the IS slogan and
were published on the central IS website. This rebranding has extended into
the field; even as the alliance seems more strategic than ideological in nature,
Sinai fighters have begun to carry IS banners during their operations.
Even so, many of those who joined the ABM after its pledge of allegiance
to IS did so not on ideological or intellectual grounds, but to enact revenge
on the Egyptian system. Many new recruits’ businesses had suffered from
losses, whether legal, such as agriculture, or illegal, such as smuggling.
That being said, a good number of Sinai youths have joined the ranks of
foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. Some have been killed in combat, while
others continue to operate there. Meanwhile, ABM has gained its own foreign
fighters, from a variety of countries, who have come to Sinai motivated
by their ideology. Security forces have confirmed having found foreign fighters
among dead and captured militants.
Nevertheless, this move toward rebranding as IS was not unanimously
approved by the ABM leadership. Internal disputes have broken out within
the group in Sinai, and its members have been divided between supporters
and opponents of the pledge of allegiance to the parent organization in
Syria and Iraq.
BASES OF STRENGTH
The geography of Sinai, a region on the Egyptian border characterized by
mountainous desert, is one of the most important factors contributing to
the strength of the rebranded IS. Sinai has remained relatively undeveloped
for decades, and the current conflict zone features sand dunes and rugged
desert areas. One of the most dangerous nests of IS insurgency is located in
the south of the area, in Mount Halal in central Sinai. The rough terrain and
lack of roads have made this a common area in which to concentrate forces.
To the north, the required absence of the Egyptian army from Area C,
based on its peace agreement with Israel, has made this terrain similarly dangerous,
as militants hide in agricultural fields spread across battle zones. The
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