Sinai terror group that may have downed Russian plane is a growing threat

The terror group that claimed responsibility for downing a Russian airliner in Egypt last month is a little known affiliate of the Islamic State that has quietly but rapidly grown into a powerful regional threat.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday that the plane was blown up by a homemade explosive device. FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov told Russian state media that "traces of foreign explosives" were found in debris recovered from the crash site. All 224 on board the plane were killed.

Russia: Homemade bomb brought down airliner over Egypt

Whether the group called the Sinai Province was responsible for downing the plane, as it claims, is not known, but the Sinai Province has emerged as an effective terror organization over the past few years.

“The group has really started to turn up the heat,” said Matthew Henman, head of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center.

It claimed responsibility for a July rocket attack that hit an Egyptian navy frigate in the Mediterranean Sea off the northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula. The group has  tried to seize territory in the Sinai Peninsula and launched car bombs in Cairo and elsewhere over the past couple of years, all signature tactics of  Islamic State militants.

“There hasn’t been anything as bad as Sinai (Province) ever,” said Shadi Hamid, an analyst at the Brookings Institution.

The group poses a major threat to Egypt's stability and its tourism industry, a major economic driver. To reassure visitors that the country is secure, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made a surprise visit last week to the airport in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, where the doomed airliner's flight originated.

Sisi said his visit "aims to reassure people inside and outside Egypt,” according to the Associated Press. “We want people who come here to be secure and safe and to live and go back safely to their countries.”

Much of the Sinai Peninsula is a poor region neglected for years by the government, making it a ripe target for extremists who tap into local grievances. Tribal leaders are influential, and fundamentalism is a way of life in parts of the peninsula.

“It’s a just a natural pool from which to draw recruits,” said Hamid, author of Temptations of Power, a book about Islamist movements.

The Sinai Province was formed in 2011 or 2012, but emerged as a serious threat after the 2013 military overthrow of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic group that has since been outlawed by the new government.

Last year, the Sinai Province pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, which had succeeded in taking over large swaths of Iraq and Syria and claimed to be behind last Friday's terror attacks in Paris.

Sinai Province was among a number of terror groups around the world that wanted to affiliate with the Islamic State at the time, but not all of them were accepted into the larger fold. The Islamic State “was very selective in who it recognized,” Henman said.

The Sinai Province was welcomed by the Islamic State and has benefited from the militants' resources and expertise in bombmaking.

The Egyptian group had been known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, but changed its name to the Sinai Province when it affiliated with the Islamic State.

The government has struggled to counter the Sinai Province. Egypt’s army  responded in a “heavy-handed" way to its growth, further alienating the population, Hamid said. The military has been accused of punishing entire villages if residents are suspected of being sympathetic to the group.

Egypt’s military doesn’t have a presence in many remote parts of the peninsula and can’t protect ordinary citizens, which often forces people to cooperate with extremists who infiltrate towns and villages. The Egyptian government has started working with some tribes in the Sinai to try to turn them against the extremists.

That has helped, but modern counterinsurgency tactics require government forces or local defense groups to provide consistent protection so extremists can’t intimidate civilians.

“The Egyptian army doesn’t really know how to do counterinsurgency,” Hamid said.