Egyptian police seized nine weapons caches across the Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, a week after discovering three large stores in the same area. The Palestinian Authority-based Ma'an news agency quoted officials who said that all of the weapons were ready to be smuggled into Gaza.
The caches were found in northern and central Sinai, in the city of Rafiach on the Gaza-Egypt border, and at El-Arish on the Mediterranean coast, police said.
Egyptian forces told Ma'an they found machine guns, ammunition, over 170 anti-aircraft shells, 90 artillery shells and 200 bullets of varying sizes and anti-tank landmines.
One hundred kilograms of TNT explosives were seized from a hideout inside a cemetery in Rafiach.
On Sunday, August 29, Egyptian forces found more than 150 anti-aircraft missiles and 50 anti-aircraft projectiles, as well as automatic rifles, ammunition and 100 kilograms of standard explosives. Three days earlier, they discovered 190 anti-tank missiles.
Egypt has seized over 500 smuggling tunnels and several weapons caches in southern Egypt since July.
According to an analyst on Strategypage.com, Egypt's security services include the General Intelligence Directorate (GIS) and the State Security Investigations Service (SSIS), which focus on counter-terrorism. Recent successes notwithstanding, the analysis is not impressed with the agencies' capabilities, claiming that “the amount of time both agencies spend spying on the population leaves them little time for carrying out important duties, like actually investigating espionage and terrorism. Or developing assets and informants in the Sinai to help aid the army's campaign against the smugglers.”
“Unfortunately for the soldiers fighting in the Sinai,” Strategypage.com adds, “lack of good intelligence is likely to continue in the long-term future, further damaging not only the military's anti-trafficking mission but Egypt's international reputation as a major military power.”