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Egypt attack: Profile of Sinai Province militant group Sinai Province: Egypt's most dangerous group
(7 months later)
Sinai Province is a militant group that has put its name to a string of deadly attacks in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, and has pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS). The militant group Sinai Province is currently the most active insurgent group in Egypt. It has been linked to a number of deadly attacks, mostly in North Sinai, but also in the capital, Cairo, and other provinces.
On 29 January a series of strikes against military targets in North Sinai left more than 30 people dead, attacks which analysts said showed a new level of co-ordination. The Islamist group has been active on the Sinai peninsula since 2011 and was initially known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem).
The attacks were carried out despite efforts by the Egyptian military to quell unrest in Sinai through a military crackdown. It changed its name after it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group in November 2014.
Attacks against Israel At the start of July this year, Sinai Province staged a series of attacks against the army, whose scale and complexity observers said indicated the possibility of closer coordination with the IS leadership in Syria.
Sinai Province was previously called Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Champions of Jerusalem), but announced a name change in November 2014 when it pledged allegiance to IS, the militant organisation that had made rapid advances in Iraq and Syria. IS strategies
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis was an Al-Qaeda-inspired group that started its operations immediately after the January 2011 uprising that led to the fall of Egypt's long-running ruler Hosni Mubarak. Brian Fishman, a researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington, was quoted by the New York Times as saying that the coordination illustrated by the assailants - suicide bombers backed up by direct and indirect fire, well-aimed mortars used in combination with small arms, and simultaneous assaults in many places - was the strongest evidence yet of strategies also used by Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
The group was initially known for launching attacks on Israeli targets and interests. Sinai Province is now thought to be aiming to take control of the Sinai Peninsula in order to turn it into an Islamist state run by the Islamic State group.
It first gained attention in July 2012 when it assumed responsibility for the blowing up of a pipeline that exports gas to Israel and Jordan, and a month later, it said it had fired rockets from Sinai into the southern Israeli resort of Eilat. The number of active Sinai Province members is believed to be between 1,000 and 1,500.
In September 2012 the group claimed responsibility for attacking an Israeli border patrol in response to a US-produced film widely condemned in the Muslim world as having insulted the Prophet Muhammad. State of emergency
Assassination attempt It appears to have been operating mainly, but not exclusively, in North Sinai province, which has been under a state of emergency since October 2014 when 33 security personnel were killed in an attack claimed by the group.
It was after Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was forced from power in 2013 and the security forces cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood supporters that the group started directing its violence against the Egyptian army and police. Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb has described the army's confrontation with the group there as a "state of war".
The group has been involved in suicide bombings, drive-by shootings, assassinations and beheadings. North Sinai is thinly populated and generally underdeveloped. Many of the local population are said to feel marginalised and therefore more inclined to be supportive of the militants.
In one of its most high-profile attacks, the group tried to assassinate Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim in September 2013, when his motorcade in Cairo was targeted by a car bomb. The border with Israel and the Gaza Strip has been a scene of tension over the past few years. The Egyptian authorities are trying to maintain a buffer zone, demolishing houses and digging a trench to prevent smuggling between Egypt and Gaza - which they say is a source of weapons for the militants.
A month later there were attacks on South Sinai's Security Directorate and on the military intelligence building in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya. The group started by attacking Israeli with rockets, but after the ouster of Islamist President Muhammad Morsi in 2013 it has mostly focused on Egypt's security services and has killed dozens of soldiers.
On 24 January 2014, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis once again targeted the capital, saying it had carried out an apparent suicide truck bombing outside the police headquarters in Cairo. It has been involved in suicide bombings, drive-by shootings, assassinations and beheadings.
A day later, on the anniversary of Egypt's revolution against Mr Mubarak, the group claimed to have downed a military helicopter in northern Sinai, killing five soldiers. Sinai Province claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt on Interior Minister Muhammad Ibrahim in September 2013 near his home in Cairo.
It staged its first attack on foreign travellers in February of the same year, bombing a bus waiting to cross into Israel, and killing three South Koreans and the Egyptian bus-driver. Months later it said it was behind a bomb attack on a tourist bus in the Sinai town of Taba on the border with Israel which left three South Koreans and the Egyptian driver dead.
Then in August 2014, the group broadcast a brutal video showing the beheading of four military servicemen they accused of spying for Israel's security service, Mossad. Another six army personnel were killed the following month. In a piece of propaganda designed to discredit the security forces, in August 2014, the group broadcast a video showing the beheading of four military servicemen they accused of spying for Israel's security service, Mossad.
It was in October 2014, shortly before the group pledged allegiance to IS that it said it was behind two attacks on Egyptian military positions in the Sinai, that killed more than 30 soldiers - the biggest loss of life in decades for Egypt's army. The group was seen to widen it tactics in July 2015, when it said it had attacked an Egyptian naval vessel in the Mediterranean with a missile fired from the shore - a worrying development for shipping in the region.
Outside backing? The militants said the attack destroyed the vessel and killed its crew, but Egyptian officials said there were no casualties, and challenged the group's account.
The group has rebranded its media and its Twitter account to reflect its new IS affiliation. Citizens warned
But even months before its declaration of allegiance to IS, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis had shown signs of affinity with the group through official leadership statements and its increasingly violent tactics in its attacks, which were then shown in its media output. There has in recent months been a dramatic advance in the group's media and production capabilities. In several videos, Sinai Province has urged citizens to avoid co-operating with the authorities, especially by joining the army and police.
Some observers believe the group has links to the Muslim Brotherhood, and there have even been allegations that it is the Brotherhood's "military wing". While security forces have been Sinai Province's main targets, civilians have also been singled out.
But the group has criticised the Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood has itself condemned attacks by the militants, including those in North Sinai on 29 January. In November 2014, the group abducted and killed foreigner for the first time - US oil worker William Henderson, though it is not clear where exactly he was taken from.
The group's alleged use of tunnels along the Gaza border to get weapons has also been cited as indicating a link with Palestinian militant group Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip. However, there is no solid evidence or confirmation of such a link. BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.