"Egyptian troops are outmanned & outgunned in Sinai"

FLC

"... Egyptian troops are outmanned and outgunned by a formidable consortium of extremists, armed with heavy weapons and artillery from Libya and Sudan, in the restive and mountainous Sinai Peninsula.
The army’s operation to stunt the militants’ growth in the peninsula’s volatile north — following an attack that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in August — has made few tangible gains. Instead, the extremist groups appear emboldened.
“The army cannot fight us for two reasons,” Abdel Rahman, a member of the Salafi Jihadi Movement in North Sinai, told GlobalPost. His group, like at least six others in Sinai, wants to impose Sharia law and fight Israel.
“One, our [Islamic] ideology is spreading and you cannot seek out and destroy ideology,” he said. “Two, the spread of arms means you cannot distinguish a jihadi from a normal citizen. There are weapons everywhere.”..."