ISIS claims responsibility for largest attack in Egypt in years. Yahoo/Reuters.

Egyptian soldiers on patrol in the Sinai peninsula. Yahoo/AP.

An ISIS affiliate organization in Egypt is taking responsibility for deadly attacks in the Sinai peninsula that killed as many as 30 people. Yahoo/Reuters. Four separate attacks on Egyptian military units killed 30 people and wounded more with two children among the dead. Most of the casualties were sustained in the provincial capitol of al-Arish. Many of the victims were killed in a bombing of a military hotel and a base. The insurgency in the Sinai peninsula has erupted ever since the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood lead government. The most active group is an ISIS affiliate organization that used to be named Ansar Bayt al-Madqis but is now known as Sinai Province. Egypt has been trying to create a "buffer zone" in response to the threat. 

My Comment:

What did I say about all the governments being overthrown in the Middle East? Radical Islam once again fills the vacuum left by the overthrow of dictators, in this case one that was friendly to the U.S. The government is no longer the Muslim Brotherhood and the current regime is at least less horrible then them, but the question has to be asked. If Hosni Mubarak was still president would ISIS have a foothold in Egypt? My guess is no. I'm not saying that the Arab Spring was a bad thing or that I want Mubarak back, just that revolutions tend to end up having unforeseen consequences. 

As for ISIS, this is yet another country that they have a toehold in. They control large parts of Syria and Iraq, have a strong presence in Libya and are getting support in Afghanistan. Recent reversals on the battlefield should not create the impression that ISIS is not spreading. They may not be spreading much in Syria and Iraq, and are even being pushed back in places, but they are spreading elsewhere. I don't think that they will be able to have anywhere near the success they have had in Syria and Iraq in Egypt, but they can destabilize an already unstable government. 

Once again, this war against radical Islam is a global one. Egypt is just another battlefield. The hope is that moderates will win out in the end but it seems that the radicals have the momentum. The only saving grace is that there are many competing groups and they fight each other as well. If Al-Qaeda and ISIS were to put aside their differences and pool their resources then they could be a massive threat to the rest of the world. And even if they don't we are still looking a global, generational war, one that has been going on for more then a decade already...