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Egypt’s Sisi vows retribution after 31 soldiers slain in Sinai

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In remarks that could presage a fresh crackdown on Islamist opponents of the Egyptian government, President Abdel Fattah Sisi vowed Saturday to punish those responsible for attacks that killed 31 soldiers in the restive Sinai peninsula.

Friday’s assault, which targeted a military checkpoint and then the troops who responded to the initial strike, marked Egypt’s largest one-day loss of military life in decades.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the operation’s sophistication bore the hallmarks of Ansar Bayd al-Maqdis, or Partisans of Jerusalem, which has staged a number of lethal attacks on Egyptian security forces in the Sinai and elsewhere.

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Egyptian authorities have portrayed the wave of violence as inspired and carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement driven from power 15 months ago when Sisi led a popularly supported coup against then-President Mohamed Morsi.

In a furious televised speech, delivered shortly before Sisi attended the funerals of the slain troops, the president declared that Friday’s attacks were an assault against all Egyptians.

“We are fully alert and aware that the aim is to bring this whole country down,” he said. “God willing, this won’t happen.”

Employing rhetoric that plays well with conspiracy-minded Egyptians, Sisi said the Sinai attacks were foreign funded and part of a plot against the country. Egypt has long accused regional powers such as Turkey and Qatar of providing cash and assistance to Islamist movements.

An alliance representing the banned Muslim Brotherhood denied any role in Friday’s attacks and offered condolences to the “martyrs.” It also blamed the violence on the current government, saying the outbreak of unrest could be directly traced back to the July 2013 coup against Morsi.

Friday’s attack on a military checkpoint was described by military officials as a complex operation involving at least one explosives-rigged vehicle, several roadside bombs and weaponry including rocket-propelled grenades. Sisi called it an attempt to “break the resolve of Egypt as well as the Egyptian army.”

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Egyptian authorities declared a state of emergency in the northern Sinai and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the area while decreeing three days of national mourning. The nation’s top military body, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, met Saturday and voiced determination to “eradicate terrorism” in the Sinai.

The peninsula for years has been beset by a low-level insurgency that intensified in the wake of Morsi’s ouster. Sisi’s government said Morsi, the country’s first elected president, allowed militant groups, some of them from outside Egypt, to take root in the Sinai during his yearlong tenure.

Over the last 15 months, Sisi has staged a sweeping crackdown on the Brotherhood, which has been branded a terrorist organization. Hundreds of its backers have died in street clashes with security forces, and thousands of supporters are in jail. That includes the movement’s leadership echelon; Morsi is on trial charged with a variety of capital crimes.

Special correspondent Amro Hassan contributed to this report.

Follow @laurakingLAT on Twitter for news out of Egypt

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