Egyptian forces desert N. Sinai positions amid multiple terror alerts

Warnings of terrorist attacks on the way have been flooding in from North Sinai in the last 24 hours, DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources report Monday. The are believed heading for Egyptian and Israeli targets as well as US contingents of the Multinational Force peacekeeping force. Both their headquarters in northern Sinai and Sharm el-Sheikh are on the highest alert level and personnel are confined to base. Egyptian security troops are abandoning their positions in and around the northern town of El Arish. They were not mollified by visits paid Sunday by Egyptian interior minister Ahmed Gamal Eddin and chief of staff Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi after three Egyptian soldiers were killed in a Salafist ambush Saturday. The Egyptian soldiers complain they have not been properly equipped or armed for combating the terrorists. Their desertion gives the Islamist terrorists a free run.