“We promise people to steer the country to safe ground and secure the coming presidential and parliamentary elections,” said Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim during a visit to Al-Beheira Security Directorate on Sunday. “The upcoming presidential elections will pass safely amid intensified security plans.” Police and army personnel have been targeted by militant jihadist groups since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi on 3 July. Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, long at the forefront of terrorist attacks, has now been joined by three other groups — Ansar Al-Sharia Brigades in Egypt, Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt), and Al-Ziaab Al-Monfareda (Lone Wolves). Ansar Al-Sharia has claimed responsibility for recent attacks in the governorates of Al-Sharqiya, Beni Suef and Giza which have claimed the lives of 28 police personnel. Several jihadist groups in the Middle East are called Ansar Al-Sharia. The best known has been operating in Libya since 2011. “Ansar Al-Sharia has five or six operational cells in Egypt,” says security expert Khaled Okasha. “They are well trained and can use a wide range types of weapons.” “Ansar Al-Sharia is following in the footsteps of Al-Qaeda, forming subsidiaries in many countries to build a regional terrorist base. It has affiliates in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria.” Ajnad Misr, which like Ansar Al-Sharia emerged following Morsi's ouster, recently released a video claiming responsibility for eight attacks between November 2013 and April 2014. In January the group claimed it was targeting “police officers involved in massacres” — a reference to the security crackdown on two pro-Brotherhood sit-ins that followed the overthrow of Morsi in July. It has claimed responsibility for the murder in April of senior anti-riot police officer Brigadier Ahmed Zaki, killed when a bomb was detonated in the car he was riding and for three explosive devices in front of Cairo University detonated the same month which killed Brigadier Tarek Al-Mergawi and severely wounded five others, including a major-general. Ajnad Misr, says Islamic movement expert Maher Farghali, comprises extremist jihadists as well as members of Hazemoun, supporters of former presidential hopeful Hazem Salah Abu Ismail. “Ajnad Misr's capability is restricted to rudimentary operations which has limited its impact. It has members in Cairo and Giza governorates,” Farghali told Al-Dostour newspaper. Okasha agrees on the groups limited capability to mount operations but believes its members are drawn from the younger generation of Muslim Brothers. “The group, which was founded after 30 June, comprises radical young Brothers trained by Brotherhood leader Osama Yassin,” says Okasha. The Lone Wolves brigade, say experts, is a loose association of young Jihadi salafist followers of Al-Qaeda leaders Mohamed Al-Zawahri and Ahmed Ashoush. It lacks any leadership structure and members finance their own operations, accessing materials available on the market to make primitive explosives. The terrorist organisations that have recently emerged in Egypt do not represent a threat on the state's stability or its ability to safeguard the presidential elections,” says military expert Hossam Sweilam. “The membership of these new terrorist organisations, which we began about only in the last few months, are unlikely to exceed a few dozen,” he told Al-Ahram Weekly, the majority hailing from the Muslim Brotherhood. “They pose no threat to the presidential elections. They said they would disrupt January's referendum on the constitution but were unable to do anything. The warnings they release from time to time are to raise their morale, and a strategy to frighten people from casting their votes.” “Every tiny group of extremists seeks to create an identity for itself in an attempt to attract funding from intelligence agencies and other organisations that sponsor terrorism.” Sweilam believes the series of successful proactive attacks on armed groups have left the security forces in control of the situation and that police tactics have, on the whole, been successful. Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim insists terrorist activity is waning in the wake of successful raids on terrorist cells across Egypt and that current security plans will foil any potential attacks. “The ministry is ready to overcome all challenges as the presidential elections approach,” Ibrahim said during his visit to Al-Beheira where he inspected checkpoints on the agricultural road and security patrols and police stations in Damanhour. Ibrahim also visited the anti-narcotics department and met with heads of the governorates security directorate. “Comprehensive plans to secure the presidential election are in place,” an official source within the Interior Ministry told the Weekly. “All public gatherings and conferences of presidential candidates will be secured also by the police. As voting day draws closer there will be increased patrols by special forces. Central security forces and mobile units will be deployed to support personnel assigned to securing polling stations.” “The immediate vicinity of polling stations will be monitored by surveillance cameras to facilitate the follow-up of any perceived threats.” The source said morale within the security forces was high since pre-emptive attacks against terrorist began.
