CAIRO – In Egypt’s restive Sinai, Bedouin leaders are urging the government to arm their tribesmen by creating a local security force.

The state is struggling to impose its authority in the peninsula, and uproot Islamic militants who have attacked Egyptian troops and neighboring Israel.

But the security force proposal, which the government says it is considering, raises fears that the Bedouin could become a new militia, only adding to the turmoil.

The idea highlights Cairo’s dilemma in Sinai. Bedouin, who make up the bulk of the population in its northern deserts and southern mountainous areas, deeply resent the central government, saying they have long suffered from discrimination, economic neglect and brutal crackdowns by security officials, who in past years have detained thousands of Bedouin youth, torturing many.

The resentment has pushed some young Bedouin to join violent Islamic extremist groups, and Bedouin are major players in cross-border smuggling of drugs and migrants, fueling the lawlessness in the area.

As a result, security forces have had to work delicately in trying to end the threat from militant groups.

The government of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi launched a major military operation, sending thousands of troops into the Sinai after militants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in a brazen Aug. 5 ambush near the Israel-Gaza borders.

But the forces have refrained from aggressively attacking militants, wary of harming civilians and further angering the tribes of Sinai, which are already heavily armed.

Over the weekend, Morsi said in a speech in Cairo that security forces had identified some of those behind the ambush, which was part of an attempted attack into Israel.

Troops had a chance to go after them, he said, but refrained because they were present at a gathering of several hundred civilians.

Leaders of main Bedouin tribes met with Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal el-Din, who is in charge of police, in late September and put forward the idea of the ministry taking on Bedouin to serve as a new security force, said Atiya Abu-Qardud, a sheik from the el-Ahiywat tribe in northern Sinai who participated in the meeting. Under the proposal, the tribes would put forward 1,000 people to be armed and trained by the Interior Ministry.

 

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