Egypt's Sisi 'ignored' bloodbath warnings against arming anti-IS tribes

Sisi ignored advice and a military intelligence report sounding alarm about the formation of local paramilitary forces in the Sinai Peninsula, an Egyptian military source told The New Arab on Wednesday, with officers saying the situation could spiral into a localised "civil war".

"The reports have warned that tribal support could be lost forever if the fighting turned into a battle implementing a scorched-earth policy," the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

"Both sides would classify non-cooperative tribes as enemies, compounding this is the fact that that many tribesmen have joined IS."

According to the source, the intelligence report said pitting the once resistive peninsula's numerous tribes against one another would "turn what is left of Sinai into a bloodbath".

He said that Sisi has ignored repeated warnings from senior military officers, who have opposed the formation of tribal paramilitary forces, arguing that arming pro-government tribes could lead to "catastrophic repercussions".

The Egyptian military in 2015 formed a local militia -colloquially known as Group 103 - to assist the army in Sinai operations.

The military arms and oversees the militias from local tribes.  

An open conflict between the Tarabin tribesmen and IS militants emerged in recent weeks after a video footage emerged of tribal militiamen dressed in military uniform executing unarmed and blindfolded suspected IS members.

IS claimed responsibility this week for a deadly attack, which killed ten members of the Tarabin tribe who were manning a checkpoint near a militant-stronghold south of the border town of Rafah.

In late April, an IS suicide bomber killed four tribesmen standing watch in Rafah.

The tribes retaliated by killing eight suspected IS fighters and burning one jihadi alive in the town earlier this month.

Moussa al-Delh, a powerful member of the Tarabin, announced earlier this month ithat the tribe was at war with IS.

He said the tribal militia was under the leadership of the state and invited other Sinai tribes to join the fight.

Human Rights Watch has called for countries supplying the Egyptian government with military equipment to suspend their assistance, citing the "out of control" counter-terrorism campaign in the Sinai.

Writing in The Independent, Robert Fisk warned earlier this month that Egypt could turn into Iraq, where controversial government-backed Shia militias have been fighting IS, because of the "killer-militia" in Sinai.