USA sends 75 troops to MFO in Sinai

The deployment included a light infantry platoon, forward surgical teams and other equipment and vehicles, Xinhua quoted Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook as saying on Thursday.

The U.S. has about 720 peacekeepers in the Sinai as part of a multinational peacekeeping and observer force continually monitoring compliance with the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Egyptian security forces in a two-day span killed 56 jihadists of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant’s (ISIL’s) affiliate in a “major military operation” in north Sinai.

The army often reports large death tolls among the insurgents but they are impossible to verify and there has been little noticeable effect on IS’s ability to carry out deadly attacks on the security forces. The U.S. unit involved is called Task Force Sinai, and now comprises soldiers primarily with the Texas National Guard.

“We’re going to continue staying in contact with the MFO and adjust force protection capabilities as conditions warrant”, Cook said.

A number of vehicles and tools used by militants in their attacks against army personnel were also destroyed, the statement added.

Many members of Sinai-based Islamist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, designated as a terrorist organisation by Egypt, the USA and other countries, pledged allegiance to Islamic State in November 2014 and changed its name to Sinai Province.

Last month, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US General Martin Dempsey, testified that while the Pentagon had recently installed counter-mortar radars and provided the Force with better communication equipment, he “fully expects that threat to increase”.