En gruppe beduin-stammer i Sinai har dannet et forbund for at samarbejde med myndighederne om at bekæmpe Sinai Provinsen, den lokale udgave af IS.

Bedouin leaders in the Sinai Peninsula have issued a rare call for solidarity with the Egyptian army to fight against Islamic extremism in response to a Friday attack that killed more than 300 Muslims at a local mosque.

“We call on men and youths of Sinai tribes to join their brothers…to coordinate for a major operation with the army” to end terrorism, said a statement posted on Facebook by the Union of Sinai Tribes.

Der bor 600.000 beduiner i Sinai og deres forhold til centralmagten har været præget af mistænksomhed og mistro.

Sinai Province was created by roughly 1,000 Bedouin jihadists who were part of a group previously known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis and pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014.

Sinai Province udgør en trussel mod Sisis regime.

In Friday’s attack, at least 25 armed men used guns and explosives against Muslim worshipers at the Al Rawda mosque in the town of Ber al Abd, which lies west of the city of Al Arish, killing 305 people, including 28 children, according to Egyptian officials.

Jihadisterne ønsker, at Sis-regimet skal overreagere. Egyptiske myndigheder har altid slået hårdt ned på oprørere, og IS får dem til at slå tilbage i frygt.

Egypten har et sikkerhedssamarbejde med Israel, men israelerne er bekymret for, at egypterne ikke er sofistikerede nok.

“The Egyptian army has proven not very effective in dealing with ISIS’ province in Sinai,” said Ehud Ya’ari, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and an Israeli political analyst. “Unless they change their mode of operation…it will keep being the same.”

Men hvordan opdrager du et regime til at opføre sig anderledes? Det er den orientalske styreform – brutal og topstyret.

IS ved, hvordan de skal skræmme beduinerne fra at samarbejde.

Since the start of the insurgency in 2013, Islamist militants have repeatedly dumped slain corpses of men believed to be army informants in public places, which tribesmen said has so far limited willingness to cooperate.

Flertallet af dem, som blev dræbt fredag var fra en stamme, Sawarka, som tidligere i år sagde, at dens medlemmer ville samarbejde med myndighederne om at bekæmpe IS. Hvor mange tør gøre det efter fredagens massakre?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-egypts-sinai-region-a-call-to-cooperate-with-the-army-1511733232