Egyptian military claims edge in Sinai battle

The Egyptian military has taken the upper hand in a two-month-old campaign to rid Sinai of Islamist militants, repairing a "security collapse" after the revolution of January 2011, a spokesman said.

"The last week included a decisive confrontation with elements that threaten national security," the spokesman, Colonel Ahmed Ali, said on Sunday in a televised news conference to discuss the continuing campaign.

The persistent security vacuum in the Sinai Desert near the Israeli border has been a growing worry for officials in Cairo, Tel Aviv and Washington, all concerned that the region is turning into a terrorist haven. But the Egyptian government's control of Sinai was tenuous even under former president Hosni Mubarak's police state, and Bedouin families with ties across the border in Gaza and Israel have prided themselves for decades on their flourishing smuggling business. Previous announcements from the Egyptian military about its expansive operations there have not changed much.

Last September, for example, under then president Mohammed Mursi and his new defence minister, General Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, Ali held a similar news conference about the army's accomplishments in a similarly sweeping campaign begun that August. The military said it had captured and killed dozens of militants there, and Ali said the campaign would "continue until it achieves the main goal of retaining security and stability".

But a US journalist who visited the area reported no signs of a major military operation.

This year's renewed Sinai campaign began in July, soon after Sisi ousted Mursi, of the Muslim Brotherhood.