Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula
Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai PeninsulaAFP photo

An Al-Qaeda-linked group based in the Sinai Peninsula has denounced the Egyptian army as “an enemy of Allah” because of its crackdown on Sinai terrorists.

The Sinai has become increasingly lawless since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, and the terror attacks have only increased since the removal of his successor, Mohammed Morsi.

The Egyptian armed forces have launched large scale military operations against terrorists in Sinai in an attempt to suppress the insurgency. The terror groups have hit back - a torrent of attacks by gangs of Al Qaeda-inspired Islamic terrorists have killed over 100 Egyptian soldiers and policemen since Morsi's overthrow.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, one of the terror groups operating in the Sinai, released a video on Monday which shows some of the terrorist attacks it has carried out in the region. These include detonating a powerful roadside bomb at armored vehicles, ambushing a military patrol, destroying a tank using an anti-tank missile, and launching an assault on an Egyptian army outpost in one of the towns in northern Sinai.

In the video, the group calls the Egyptian army “The Camp David Army", a reference to the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, adding that the army “has not fired one shot at the Zionist enemy for forty years, yet in one day killed thousands of Muslims in Cairo."

The group also accused the Egyptian army of “collaboration" with Israel, of “heresy" and of “waging a war on Allah's religion.” In light of this, says the organization, the conclusion is that "jihad" must be carried out against the Egyptian army.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis recently claimed responsibility for a failed assassination attempt that targeted Egypt’s interior minister.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis is an extremist Salafist group that has in the past claimed responsibility for an attempted rocket attack on the Israeli resort city of Eilat.