Egypt’s President Sisi extends state of emergency for three months

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has announced the extension of a nationwide state of emergency for three months.

The announcement was made in a decree on Saturday.

Cairo says the measure is meant to allow security forces to take necessary steps to confront the dangers and funding of terrorism, and safeguard the security in all parts of the country.

Egypt first imposed the current state of emergency last April following two deadly bombings of Coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria. It had been extended three times.

PressTV-Egypt renews state of emergency for 3 months

The renewal came against the backdrop of terrorist attacks on Coptic Christians.

Under Egypt’s law, a state of emergency can only be extended once, but the country’s president has the power to reinstate it if deemed necessary.

The emergency law will allow the police to make arrests and conduct surveillance and seizures more easily. The latest extension has raised fears among some Egyptians and human rights activists, who view the measure as a formal return to the pre-2011 police state under the rule of former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt has been facing violence due to terrorist attacks across the country in the past few years, with Takfiri terrorists taking advantage of chaos, which reigned soon after the first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted by the military in July 2013.

The Daesh-affiliated Velayat Sinai group has claimed most of the assaults. The Takfiri terrorist group has expanded its attacks to target members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community as well as foreigners visiting the country, prompting Cairo to toughen up a controversial crackdown, which critics say has mostly targeted dissidents.

At least 27 militants killed in Sinai

Also on Saturday, Egypt's military said its forces killed 27 militants and detained scores of others over the past few days as part of ongoing campaign to quash extremists based in the Sinai Peninsula.

The military said in a statement that six of the militants were killed in airstrikes on their hideouts, and 12 died in a shoot-out with security forces. It did not say how the others were killed.

“Security forces also arrested 114 suspects and found and destroyed a training camp which included a shooting range, an obstacle course and an underground conference room,” the statement added.

The Egyptian military also announced the death of eight soldiers during the latest operation. According to official figures, more than 100 militants and at least 30 Egyptian soldiers have been killed in clashes in less than two months.

The army launched the latest campaign in February after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi gave it a three-month deadline to crush the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in Sinai.

Sisi has said setbacks inflicted on Daesh in Syria were driving the group’s terrorists to relocate to Libya and Sinai.

The group has killed hundreds of soldiers, policemen and civilians, mainly in its North Sinai stronghold but also elsewhere in Egypt. The Sinai Peninsula has been under a state of emergency since October 2014, after a deadly terrorist attack left 33 Egyptian soldiers dead.

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