Intelligence collected by SIS have established that ISIL and its Egyptian affiliate – Sinai Province which was previously known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis – are at advanced stages of their plan to conduct a coordinated offensive against both Egyptian and Israeli targets. The plan involves a coordinated attack against Israeli security personnel manning the Israeli-Egyptian border; as well as attacking a string of Egyptian targets across the Sinai region (including the economically vital Suez Canal) and traversing into Cairo. Possible targets include military outposts, barracks, military-owned enterprises, police stations, paramilitary bases and entities associated with the Government of Egypt.
Available intelligence confirms that Sinai province has been upgrading its military arsenal and conducting increased surveillance on its intended targets. It has also retrained its terrorist squads for coordinated ambush, commando raids and stealth assassination campaigns. Current intelligence procure a bias that terror groups plan to use different rocket types (including Grads), mortars, car bombs and suicide bombers as the forerunner to smash through the defenses so as to allow terrorist squads to gain entry and subsequently seize the target. Both Israel and Egypt are likely to suffer this attack.
To preclude reinforcements from reaching the target area, the terror groups plan to ambush military convoys and execute all personnel aboard, seizing valuable hardware and torching the rest. It is also quite probable that the terror groups will dispatch their assassin to Egyptian cities (particularly Cairo) where they will assassinate prominent Egyptians affiliated with the government.
The assassinations will be coordinated with the attacks in the Sinai and Suez regions; and it is quite possible that the terror groups plans to conduct all the attacks and assassinations simultaneously.
SIS has also established that Hamas is providing weapons and intelligence to Ansar Bait al-Maqdis. Additionally, Ansar Bait al-Maqdis has established operational collaboration with Agnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt). Agnad Misr is an Egyptian Islamist Group established recently (and whose motto is Retribution is Life) and its composition includes Salafist radicals and former militants of the EIJ (Egyptian Islamic Jihad). Its sector of operations is Cairo and adjacents areas; and this indicates that Ansar Bait al-Maqdis established a synergic collaboration with it so as to ensure the success of its operations in Cairo.
SIS has assessed the Sinai Province terrorist campaign and concluded that the terror organization is motivated by its past success against the Egyptian military. Of particular note are the multiple coordinated attacks conducted by the Islamist group in January 29th against Egyptian military targets (located in Suez and Sinai towns) which left over 40 soldiers killed and over 100 others injured. The success of this attack particular elated the leadership of the group and its principal ally, ISIL, took note of this success and has now decided to coordinate its operations in the region with Sinai province with intent of conducting a large scale terrorist offensive whose ramifications will reverberate throughout the Arab world and the Muslim world in general.
