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Good evening to you all and welcome to Cairo
allow me to convey the greetings of Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi
Deputy Prime Minister
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and Minister of Defense and Military Production
and also the greetings of my colleagues in the armed forces
I am overjoyed to meet you and thanks to the Ministry of Youth for inviting me
I appreciate you for giving me the opportunity to communicate with you
and actually with all my heart I am happy to be among you
and I hope for our meeting to be productive
there are many things to talk about
and we are here to listen, talk, and share our ideas
especially on matters relating to the armed forces and the Nuba
in the beginning I would like to reassure you, and all Egyptians about the safety in Sinai
exerting all the efforts to protect Sinai
this is the first time in our history to go through such a war
and it is sad to find some Egyptians considering their fellow Egyptians infidels
giving themselves the right to legalize the bloodshed and *** as well as celebrate the killings of Egyptian fellows
who were doing their national duty to protect the Egyptian lands
the military operations in Sinai began on Aug 7th, 2012
after the killing of 16 soldiers
in a terrorist attack that targeted a border guards security checkpoint in Rafah during Ramadan, 2012
two days later we started a military operation
we did not have the complete freedom during 2012 to do so
but after the Jun 30th revolution
the armed forces along with the security forces situated in Sinai were extensively targeted
and death casualties increased
we had to deal with that by taking an action rather than a reaction
and Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi had announced that before
we take into account that we are dealing with Egyptian citizens
we care for Sinai as much as we do for Al Nuba
it is quite an important part of the of the Egyptian lands
and all Egyptians have made sacrifices to keep Sinai as a part of Egypt
thus we began a major operation at the end of last August
up until now we achieved many successes
but I know how people feel when they hear about the death casualties and the bloodshed
the blood of the Egyptians
the blood of the martyrs who were performing a national duty to protect Egypt and its national security
an Egyptian citizen who performs the military service fighting for his country
we made sacrifices during the last period
but I would like to point out that terrorism relies on treachery and betrayal
it is not an ordinary fight
but we have heroes capable of fighting with distinction
last Friday we lost two heroes of the Special Forces
and I would like to take this opportunity to offer condolences
to their families and to the Egyptian people and also remember with sorrow any soldier or citizen
who lost his life in the fight against terrorism and darkness currently found in parts of Egypt
we have achieved many successes over the past period
and as I said fighting terrorism is an unconventional kind of fighting
and any country in the world no matter how advanced it is in the military field becomes vulnerable to losses when fighting against terrorism
for instance, the military operation ISAF which is carried out by the NATO, in cooperation with the United States in Afghanistan
if you open the operation's website
you will find that every day falls between two or three personnel
as a result of an IED (improvised explosive device) explosion or targeting the armed forces there
and therefore any troops in the world are subject to losses by terrorism
because it relies on treachery
I will present some data about what we have achieved over the last brief period
after the revolution of June 30th
the armed forces managed to arrest 803 between terrorists and criminals
killed 184 terrorist
wounded 203 who are under custody as well
there was a percentage of foreigners among the terrorists that we dealt with in Sinai
and this percentage exceeds 25% of the total dead and arrested
I've mentioned in the last press conference the large quantities of weapons that we seized
including heavy weapons as mortars, anti-tank weapons, and missiles of different types
like Igla and Grad missiles
These weapons are only for wars between armies
not to mention the spread of illegal tunnels which is the most dangerous phenomenon in Sinai
this will make me explain to you who we are fighting in Sinai
terrorism has settled in Sinai due to four main factors
the first factor was the spread of the tunnels to and from the Gaza Strip
after the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip
the phenomenon of tunnels spread heavily
through which they imported the radical ideology and terrorism from Gaza to Sinai
the second factor was the major jailbreaks by the terrorists on Jan 28th ,2011
and due to the security turmoil in Sinai at that time
those terrorists used Sinai as a safe haven
to carry out their goals and ambitions
the third factor was the criminal groups in Sinai who work in dealing arms and drug as well as human trafficking
there are various kinds of organized crime in Sinai
during the period from 2011 to 2012
those criminal groups adopted the radical ideology and used religion
as an undercover identity to practice their criminal acts
the last factor was the presidential amnesty to some criminals and extremists after Jun 30th, 2012
all those took Sinai as a safe haven
and began to achieve their own goals
which mainly aim to get rid of the military and the police in Sinai and to continuously target their units and members
accordingly, we had to deal with the dangerous phenomenon of tunnels in Sinai
since the beginning of Sinai's military operations in August 2012
the armed forces destroyed 786 smuggling tunnels
of which 344 were destroyed by engineering equipments
389 were destroyed by a new technology
used by the Engineering Authority which is immersion of tunnels until they flood and collapse
and 35 tunnels destroyed by explosives
in addition to destroying approximately 245 underground fuel storage tanks
millions of fuel liters were stored there and smuggled through tunnels to Gaza
we will continue the operations in Sinai
and we have achieved many successes
we greatly undermined the key capabilities of the terrorists in Sinai
and we have carried out many raids and search operations
but, there are still few terrorist hideouts
and we will deal with them decisively
security must be restored in Sinai
we admire the people of Sinai for their dignity and for their beautiful Egyptian and Arabian traits
the Egyptian national security and the security of the Sinai
is the responsibility of the armed forces
which will make sure to eliminate terrorism from Sinai
we reassure you and all Egyptians that we have achieved successes
although there were some martyrs
but that's the price of freedom and the price of security and stability
nothing can compensate for the Egyptian honorable blood
nothing can reimburse martyrs' families but to know that
those martyrs died to liberate Egypt from darkness and terrorism
may their souls rest in peace