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Monthly Briefing 8: May 2015


In the interest of providing the most accurate and timely information on which to assess security developments in Egypt, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) presents the eighth edition of its monthly Egypt Security Watch Briefs. These reports will serve to update TIMEP’s first full comprehensive report: Egypt’s Security: Threat and ResponsePlease download below the full eighth monthly briefing for May 2015.

The report and briefs are part of our larger, ongoing Egypt Security Watch project, which provides the most comprehensive available resource to monitor Egypt’s security situation, including an interactive map plotting all instances of violence or state operations, state actor, and terror group profiles, and expert analyses.

Notable developments from the briefing include:

May 2015 marked the highest reported number of terror attacks in Egypt in one month on record, with 138 reported attacks.  It was the fifth month in a row that over 100 attacks were reported in the country.

After a slight decrease from March to April, attacks on economic or property targets increased sharply in May with 55 reported attacks.

Unclaimed attacks in the country remained high, with 67% of all reported attacks going unclaimed in May. The number of claims has been increasing steadily since July 2014, though with a slight decrease from April to May 2015.

On May 17, Egyptian authorities hanged six men accused of participation in the “Arab Sharkas” terror cell, allegedly with ties to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. The executions were condemned by rights groups and elicited retaliation from terror groups, specifically targeting the judicial branch: Six courts were attacked, and four judges were killed in May.

The Cairo Court for Urgent Matters designated all Ultras groups terrorist organizations. Ultras are clubs of devoted fans of Egyptian football (soccer) teams, with a reputation for clashing with police.

Also in May, TIMEP published two relevant analysis articles:

In Designating a Terrorist: A Process Unchecked, Mai El-Sadany describes the three possible ways for Egypt’s judiciary to name a terrorist entity, concluding that an overly complicated process may confuse and compromise the ability to effectively prosecute terrorism.

Zack Gold underscores the high costs of Egypt’s “war on terror” in North Sinai, and its detrimental effect on the population and security. In North Sinai Population Continues to Sacrifice for Egypt, he also outlines recommendations for U.S. policymakers to encourage integration, rather than marginalization, of key populations.

Download May’s briefing here:

ESWMay2015

 

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