Egypt president gives forces 3 months to calm restive Sinai
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Just days after the worst terrorist attack in Egypt's modern history, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Wednesday gave his security forces a three-month deadline to restore "security and stability" in the troubled northern Sinai, the epicenter of an increasingly brutal Islamic insurgency.
In a televised ceremony marking the birthday of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, el-Sissi authorized his new chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Farid Hegazy, to use "all brute force" against the militants.
The speech was a very public show by the Egyptian leader that he will take new action after last Friday's startlingly grisly and bloody attack on worshippers in a mosque In a Sinai village. But it also represented a risk for el-Sissi. In his speech, he gave no indication what would happen if the military fails to defeat within three months militants who have been battling his security forces for more than three years.
El-Sissi's calls for "brute force," repeated several times since the attack, appear to signal a new escalation, suggesting the military could turn to scorched earth tactics that many of the president's loyalists in the media have been urging.
