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Egypt ISIS Affiliate Claims Responsibility in Navy Vessel Attack Egypt ISIS Affiliate Claims Responsibility in Navy Vessel Attack
(about 7 hours later)
CAIRO — Militants affiliated with the Islamic State said they struck an Egyptian naval vessel with a guided missile early Thursday off the coast of the northern Sinai Peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea. The attack, which sparked a huge fire on the boat, was the fourth large-scale assault by Egyptian militants since the end of June. CAIRO — A militant group affiliated with the Islamic State said it destroyed an Egyptian naval vessel on Thursday, posting photographs on social media of a missile exploding in a ball of fire as it slammed into the vessel.
Pictures disseminated on social media sites by the militant group, called Sinai Province, showed what appeared to be a missile trailed by smoke approaching the vessel, and then a massive explosion on the ship. In a statement, the group said the missile had destroyed the vessel and killed everyone on board. An Egyptian military spokesman said that the crew of the unnamed ship “exchanged fire” with militants off the coast of the northern Sinai Peninsula, causing a fire on board that did not result in any fatalities.
An earlier statement by the Egyptian military provided a different account and said there had been no fatalities in the attack, which occurred at 9:30 a.m.. The naval vessel had been pursuing militants on the shore, the statement said, “leading to an exchange of fire which resulted in a fire set on the boat.” But the militant group, which calls itself Sinai Province, claimed that the missile was guided and had killed everyone on board.
The attack appeared to be the first on a naval vessel claimed by Sinai Province, a jihadist group that declared its affiliation last year with the Islamic State extremist group that has seized territory in Syria and Iraq. It was the latest sign of a growing assertiveness by Egypt’s militant groups, which have carried out a series of unusually complex and high-profile attacks in recent weeks that have confounded the government’s broadening, military-led counterinsurgency campaign. It was at least the fourth unusually bold militant assault since late June, when Egypt’s top prosecutor was killed by a car bomb that detonated near his convoy. Each new attack has chipped away at claims by the government to have gained the upper hand over an insurgency that began after the military deposed President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013.
Since late June, assailants have assassinated Egypt’s top prosecutor and carried out a sweeping assault in the northern Sinai, briefly occupying a town and killing at least 21 soldiers. On Saturday, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a car bomb that destroyed part of the Italian Consulate in Cairo. It was the first major attack on a foreign mission since the beginning of the insurgency in Egypt nearly two years ago. The attack on Thursday appeared to be the first on a naval vessel claimed by Sinai Province, which declared its affiliation last year with the Islamic State. Photographs disseminated on social media sites by the group showed what appeared to be a missile trailed by smoke approaching the vessel, and then an explosion as it hit the ship.
Both Sinai Province and the military said the ship had been north of Rafah, in the northern Sinai Peninsula, when it was fired upon. The conflicting versions of how the attack unfolded were impossible to reconcile.
The Egyptian authorities have at times tightly controlled the release of information about assaults on their security personnel. In November, for example, an unknown militant group attacked another navy ship, but details of the episode remain murky with many questions still unanswered.
The State Department released some details on the November attack in its 2014 Country Reports on Terrorism, saying that after assailants hijacked the ship, on Nov. 12, Egyptian military aircraft “engaged the attackers, destroying the boat and killing the crew.”
A witness to the attack on Thursday, Nabil Abu Ouda, who lives in the Gaza Strip, said he heard an explosion and saw a “big gunboat on fire.” Three boats sped toward the ship and put out the blaze before towing it away, he said.
Unnamed security officials told The Associated Press that crew members jumped off the ship to escape a fire on board, and that a number were injured by the smoke and flames.
Egypt’s military and security services have struggled to adapt as the pace of spectacular attacks has quickened in recent weeks. The militants have showed their continued ability to acquire advanced weapons, and experts say the sophistication of the most recent assaults may also be evidence that they have begun coordinating their tactics with Islamic State operatives.
The killing of the prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, in a neighborhood near the Cairo airport was the first time the militants had assassinated a senior Egyptian government official. Two days later, jihadists in Sinai launched their most ambitious attack on the military, killing at least 21 soldiers while briefly occupying a town.
A car bomb in Cairo on Saturday killed one person and destroyed part of the Italian Consulate, in the first major bombing of a foreign diplomatic mission since the start of the insurgency.
As it has in the past, the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has responded to the attacks by stepping up its military operations in Sinai — an approach that critics say does little to alter fundamental problems with its counterinsurgency strategy.
The military said it had killed more than 200 militants since the attack by Sinai Province in early July. But the offensive had also killed at least 16 civilians, deepening the sense of “collective punishment” that has hampered efforts by the military to win support among local residents, according to Sherif Mohy El Deen, a counterterrorism and human rights researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in Cairo.
“Every day, you say you have eliminated the terrorists,” Mr. Mohy El Deen said, echoing the frequent government pronouncements. “But you have gone from targeting them to defending against them.”
On Thursday, in a sign the government was beginning to acknowledge flaws in its approach, the authorities announced the dismissal of the senior Interior Ministry official responsible for security in Cairo, according to Al-Ahram, a state newspaper.