Sinai's dual pressures

The soldiers didn't have a chance. The vehicle had gotten too close to them before its driver ignited the explosive. When the bomb went it off, it killed 28 soldiers. An additional 30 were injured. A few hours later, terrorists opened fire on an army checkpoint in which three members of the military died.

The Egyptian government reacted with severity to the attacks in northern Sinai. "The council assures the families of the martyrs as well as the exceptional Egyptian people that it will avenge the precious blood they shed," could be found in one government statement. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi declared a state of emergency in Sinai. On Monday, Egypt expanded the powers of its military courts, which are now also responsible for attacks on transportation and supply routes.

Decades of neglect

The message behind these measures is clear: Egypt will continue to respond harshly to violence in Sinai, which has long since become a significant threat to the state. Just since the fall of former President Mohammad Morsi, more than 400 police officers and members of the military have been murdered by extremists.

Terrorists have taken advantage of the precarious security situation and the economic underdevelopment of the area, and both of these problems date back to 1979. That's when Egypt and Israel reached their peace treaty granting Israel the right to military oversight of the peninsula. The Egyptian military was scarcely on hand there, and, in turn, the state opted not to invest large sums in Sinai - leaving the region to its own devices in large part.

As a result, massive frustration and anger toward the Egyptian government has emerged on the Sinai Peninsula over the last 30 years, says political scientist Khaled Hroub in an interview with DW, adding that the residents there have been left on their own.

The climate bred a form of militant Islam from which terrorist groups emerged at the turn of the century. When a series of deadly attacks on tourist hotels in the southern part of the peninsula began in 2004, Sinai residents were involved. Violence spread after Morsi was overthrown.

'An Egyptian Iraq'

Internet magazine "Al-Monitor" quotes local residents saying the state's response to the violence includes wide-scale raids in which thousands of Bedouins living in Sinai are sentenced to jail without a trial. As soon as people were convicted of terrorist acts, their homes were often bombed, and their family members are reportedly subject to arrest in many cases, as well.

"Sinai could become the Egyptian Iraq," said one Bedouin from northern Sinai to the publication. "It could transform into a playground for extremist organizations." His statements don't just refer to the wide regions no longer under state control in Iraq. It's also a nod to the arbitrary violence with which the military is targeting anyone it suspects of offering support to the "Islamic State" terror organization.

In contrast to Iraq, the battle lines in Sinai aren't drawn along religious lines. It's rather a division between the Egyptian majority and the Bedouins who have traditionally lived in the area.

"The state thinks things would be better in Sinai if there weren't any Bedouins there," writes Egyptian activist Abu Fajr, who was born to a Bedouin family, on his Facebook page. "For them, it means that they are going to be robbed of all their rights."

Enticing with beheadings

This political approach plays into the hands of the Islamists, particularly their most well-known group Ansar Bait al-Makdis (Supporters of Jerusalem). In recent months, it has been able to recruit countless new fighters. But since the Egyptian military launched a massive campaign against terrorists in late summer 2013, the group was forced to retreat to inaccessible parts of the peninsula.

That's one reason the group put a video online at the end of August that showed the beheading of four Egyptians. The terrorists accuse them of having provided information to Israel's military. The group hopes the images will help them recruit new members. In October, they released a second video, showing a house being blown up. Its owner, a respected tribal leader, allegedly collaborated with the Egyptian military.

Sinai's population is thus facing violence from two sides: from the terrorists and from the military. The actions of both groups have a hand in breeding further extremism.