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Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/13/us-egypt-sinai-militants-idUSBRE87C0P620120813
Mimicking al-Qaeda, Militant Threat Grows in Sinai
(Reuters) Tamim Elyan - "The Sinai has become a base for all kinds of extremist groups," said Yitzhak Levanon, former Israeli ambassador to Egypt. "Their overarching objective is to hurt us, to expel us, to set up a caliphate and shock the Middle East." A particular fear is that militant Salafists in Gaza and Sinai are joining forces, creating an environment ripe for al-Qaeda. According to one Arab diplomat in Islamabad, Egyptian members of al-Qaeda have begun to move back from Pakistan to take advantage of political changes at home. Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, dismissed suggestions that foreign fighters played a big role in the Sinai border attack. "There are some foreigners in the Sinai, but they are more like hitchhikers," he said. "If it weren't for the fact that so many are heading to Syria, we would see more in Sinai."