Egyptian army personnel guard the road just outside Rafah Al-Arish – Yousry Mohammed Jihadist groups attacked the security check at the Al-Risa area on the Arish-Rafah international road yet again, raising the number of assaults to 35 since the January 25 revolution. A security source told Arabstoday that gunmen targeted the checkpoint and fired heavily from behind the surrounding mountainous areas, south of the international road. The source added that police and army troops at the checkpoint exchanged fire and chased the attackers, but that they were able to flee. No deaths or injuries were reported on the either side. The checkpoint had only just been attacked on September 6.
Al-Risa is the first checkpoint on the Arish-Rafah international road leading into the border area with Gaza Strip. Army and security presence at the Al-Risa poses an obstacle to smuggling gangs and stand in their way to the border area, which is what drives these gangs to launch recurrent attacks on the checkpoint. New security enhancements and supply was sent while forces spread in the surrounding area to chase the attackers who constantly target the checkpoint.
Sinai has witnessed security tensions since the fall of the former regime headed by President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 as militant jihadist groups and smuggle gangs are spread in the peninsula. Army forces oversee the checkpoint in coordination with police departments. Last June, security agencies sent four tanks and armoured vehicles to secure the security force at the checkpoint which stands at a low area in a rugged mountainous area.
The repeated attacks on the Al-Risa checkpoint embarrasses the Egyptian authorities especially after they withdrew their heavy machinery from the border area with Israel due to complaints about the lack of security coordination with it. The peace treaty signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979 commits Egyptian authorities to keep the Sinai Peninsula unharmed to a great extent. The diminishing power of tribe leaders in the face of money flooding through smuggle networks linked to unlawful tunnels.
The number of armed attacks on the Al-Risa and a number of security checkpoints in Sinai reflect the level of security tension especially after the January 25 revolution and the breakdown of the police force. Security reports at the North Sinai security department assert that since the outbreak of the revolution in January 2011 until the first anniversary this year, the checkpoint was subject to around 10 consecutive attacks, intensified in the period between August 2011 and January 2012. Within the last eight months, the checkpoint was subject to more than twenty armed attacks, the most recent of them took place yesterday on Monday.