Sinai: Operation Eagle allows dozens of hostages to escape from traffickers

Cairo - The first stage of Operation Eagle, which hit some of the largest smugglers and terrorists' hideouts in North Sinai and destroyed some of the tunnels linking Rafah to the Gaza Strip, has allowed dozens of sub-Saharan prisoners to flee from the prison camps. Some of them have fallen into the hands of the Egyptian police and will be repatriated, while others are attempting to reach Israel.

The military operation has revealed the links between the smugglers in Sinai and Islamic movements in the Palestinian Territories, who acquire their funds to buy weapons and carry out acts of terrorism from their trafficking in human beings and organs.

Now, despite the Camp David Accords, which limited Egyptian military activity on the border with Israel, the Egyptian government has sent more than 100 armoured vehicles and 500 officers and soldiers to Arish - the capital of the slave and organ trade, as well as the main stronghold of Hamas and armed fundamentalists in Egypt.

The aim of the operation is to take back control of the Sinai, and fight the criminal movements and terrorism that have ruled the region for many years.

August 11, 2012