Country Report on Terrorism 2021 - Chapter 4 - Terrorist Safe Havens - Sinai Peninsula

In 2021, ISIS-Sinai Province (ISIS-SP) continued to conduct IED, sniper, and small-arms attacks against security forces and pro-government Bedouin groups, predominately in a small northern strip of the Sinai Peninsula.  ISIS-SP also kidnapped and assassinated civilians who were collaborating with Egyptian security forces.  Egyptian security operations that led to the March death of a senior ISIS-SP commander, the September high-profile defection of a prominent ISIS-SP religious figure (reportedly behind the deadly 2017 al-Rawda Mosque attack), and increasing rank-and-file ISIS-SP defections coincided with a significant decrease in the frequency and complexity of ISIS-SP attacks across the Sinai — less than half the rate of 2020.

The Government of Egypt continued its wider counterterrorism strategy of infrastructure, development, and humanitarian projects on the Sinai Peninsula, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to compensate North Sinai residents for houses or land lost or damaged in counterterrorism operations, payments to the families of those killed and injured, and for medical aid and social assistance.  North Sinai residents have filed grievances about compensation calculations and disbursements.

Egypt continued to partner with U.S. counterterrorism efforts and support measures to prevent the proliferation and trafficking of WMD.  The government was not known to support or facilitate the proliferation or trafficking of WMD in or through its territories.

The United States has supported Egypt’s efforts to combat ISIS-SP and other terrorist groups in Egypt by providing mine-resistant and ambush-protected vehicles, counter-IED and counter-sniper training, rotary and fixed-wing surveillance and transport aircraft, mobile sensor towers, and F-16s and AH-64 Apache helicopters (both of which conduct airstrikes against ISIS-SP).  The United States routinely engages in military-to-military discussions on how it can help Egypt defeat ISIS-SP and other terrorist groups in Egypt, including at the U.S-Egypt Military Cooperation Committee in September and the U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue in November.

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