The latest airstrikes targeting Islamic State fighters in Syria could have an indirect positive effect on Egypt, said Nabil Fouad, strategic sciences professor at the Nasser Military Academy, explaining that it would keep the fighters busy and incapable of expanding their attacks outside Syria and Iraq.
Fouad told Aswat Masriya during a phone interview that the threat of Islamic State fighters on Egypt is not the same as that on Syria and Iraq.
The Pentagon announced early Tuesday that the United States and a number of Gulf Arab countries launched their first air and missile strikes on Islamic State fighters located in Syria. The strikes killed at least 50, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which added that most of those killed were foreigners.
Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri dismissed last week the possibility of Egypt joining a military operation against Islamic State fighters.
"Egypt, for its part, is committed to providing Iraq with the appropriate support and cooperating to eliminate the Islamic State fighters and all terrorist organisations worldwide," Shukri was quoted by Foreign Ministry Spokesman Badr Abdelatty as saying during a United Nations Security Council convention on Friday.
Yet, Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi endorsed the latest U.S. led airstrikes on Islamic State fighters, calling on U.S. President Barack Obama to expand his campaign against extremism beyond Syria and Iraq, in his statements to the American newspaper the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday during his visit to the U.S.
On September 11, Saudi Arabia hosted talks in Jeddah to discuss means of combating extremist groups within the region. The talks, attended by representatives from the U.S. as well as Arab and Muslim countries, granted the support of 10 Arab countries - including Egypt - to the U.S. in a "coordinated military campaign" against Islamic State fighters in Iraq.
A security source from the ministry of interior who preferred to remain anonymous told Aswat Masriya that the terrorist attacks Egypt faces are distinct from the Islamic State fighters' activities.
"[Islamic State fighters] formed an army, we have no such thing in Egypt," the source said in a phone interview. "You cannot separate anything happening in Egypt from the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organisation."
Former President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood has been facing its most stringent security crackdown in years since Mursi's ouster in July last year. The group was listed as a terrorist organisation in December, with the majority of its leaders already behind bars facing charges related to terrorism and inciting violence.
"This series of targeting police and armed forces personnel in Egypt is a simple matter despite the losses," the security source said. "They aren't organised attacks, but rather random."
One of the most active militant groups operating in Egypt Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. it has claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks in Cairo and Sinai, including an attempt on Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim's life last September.
Reuters has interviewed a member of the Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis two weeks ago who said that the group is in contact with and receives guidance from the Islamic State fighters in Iraq.
Egypt's security forces have intensified their security measures in North Sinai in reaction to repeated militant attacks that target army and police officials, which rose significantly since Mursi's ouster. The attacks soon expanded to other areas of the country, including the capital.
Shukri has commented on a possible relation between Islamic State fighters and other militant groups in the region during a press conference on September 13, especially in Egypt, stressing that such relation is being "monitored". He added that global action is needed to combat such militant groups.
Islamic State fighters released a statement on Monday urging Islamist fighters in the Sinai Peninsula to escalate their attacks on Egyptian security forces.
The security source said that Egypt's security apparatuses "take any security threats similar to the one issued by Islamic State fighters seriously."
Islamic State fighters have controlled large areas of Iraq and Syria recently. They have carried out a number of mass executions and beheaded two American journalists and a British national.
Egypt has declared a "war on terrorism" since Mursi's ouster.
A fact-sheet prepared by Egypt's ministry of foreign affairs put the death toll for terrorism acts which took place since January 2011 and until April 2014 at 971, including 664 security personnel.
