WarSclerotic

Sinai tourist bus blast killing at least 5 people points up Egyptian-Israeli inadequacy against al Qaeda.

( The explosion was heard here in Eilat. – JW )

The tourist bus blown up by terrorists in Sinai

The bombing of a tourist bus carrying 33 South Korean tourists in Sinai just 250 meters from the Taba crossing to Israel, killing at least 4 tourists and the Egyptian driver, represents a major failure of the joint war Egypt and Israel are waging against Al Qaeda and its partners-in-terror, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian Hamas. At least 14 South Korean tourists were injured, although some sources put the figure at 20.

The South Korean group, coming from St. Catherine’s monastery near Mount Sinai, was hit just before entering Israel for a 24-hour tour of the Holy Places.

debkafile’s counterterrorism sources report that the tourist bus was attacked in three stages:

1. An explosive device was planted inside the base on a timer – either when the visitors were out touring or at one of the rest stops between the monastery and Taba.
2. At the moment that the bomb was timed to detonate, the terrorists fired a rocket at the bus.
3. At the same moment, a bomb car rammed the right wall of the bus and exploded.
Given the clockwork precision of the three actions and the quantity of explosives expended, the low number of casualties is surprising.
The operaton bore the signature of Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, the al Qaeda-led Islamist coalition which has been carrying out terrorist and rocket attacks on both sides of the border, and whose membership includes a number of seasoned and highly trained terror operatives from Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. They are fed a steady stream of intelligence by Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood figures hiding in the Gaza Strip as well as locals of the Palestinian Hamas and the Jihad Islami.
They succeeded in breaking new ground in Sinai with their attack on a tourist target – and deal a body blow to a major Egyptian industry – only because key events caught the anti-terror forces wanting:

a)  One of the four trials against deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi opened in Cairo Sunday morning, in which he was charged with espionage and conspiring to commit acts of terror.
This date should have been accompanied by an elevated terror alert not only in Egypt proper but in Sinai as well. The trial was adjourned to Feb. 23 when his lawyers walked out in protest against Morsi  being confined in a soundproofed cage.
That date too could be a red-letter day for terror.

b) The fact that Egyptian-Israeli border forces went on high alert only after the bombing of the tourist bus – not before – points to lax foresight by both forces.
c)  Despite intensive intelligence-sharing between Egypt and Israel in Sinai and the Gaza Strip, neither agency picked up on the plans in the making for the coming attack.

d)  It is the declared policy of Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis to punish Israel for Egyptian assaults on its members and bases with rocket strikes on Eilat. The last such strike took place on Jan. 31. Israeli authorities have chosen to play these threats down, except for posting an Iron Dome anti-missile battery at Israel’s southernmost town.
e)  The Sinai jihadists spotted the hole in this defensive screen. Iron Dome is set to intercept rockets aimed at Eilat, but not to gather intelligence outside its radius, such as Taba, just a few kilometers to the north. Intelligence there depended on other sources.

The fact is that Ansar Bayt Al-Magdis was able to deploy unnoticed just a few meters from the Taba terminal and the Israeli border a rocket trap and a bomb car bespeaks a large hole in IDF defenses.
f)  Israel permitted the Egyptian army to deploy military units, tanks and assault helicopters in Sinai, a major concession in support of the war on terror. But those forces have failed to curb the operational capabilities of the terrorists who are making free of Sinai.
The whisper going around Israeli official and high military circles is that the government’s policy of relying on the Egyptian army to handle the Islamist terrorists has run aground. There are quiet calls for an urgent revision. It is time for Israel’s security and military chiefs to stop pretending that they can afford to turn their backs on the mounting menace posed by Al Qaeda groups closing in on its borders from south and north.

This entry was posted on February 16, 2014 at 9:20 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.