After Sinai Battle, Egypt and ISIS Spar Over Narrative

Egypt Junta Produces Animated Video of Battle

After massive fighting Wednesday in the area around Sheikh Zuwayid left some 200 people dead, Egypt’s military junta and the local ISIS affiliate are both hard at work spinning the clashes as a victory for them, and a defeat for the other side.

The Egyptian military went to great lengths producing a 3D animated video of their version of the battle, which claimed that not only was ISIS routed, but that claims of 100 casualties on their side were false stories al-Jazeera perpetrated to “hurt soldiers’ morale,” and that only 17 Egyptian soldiers were killed.

The ISIS affiliate, for its part, released a series of photographs showing destroyed military vehicles, and issued a statement on their version of the attacks, saying they’d attacked 20 different sites and cut off military supply lines in the area for hours.

Interestingly, ISIS’ version of the events included claims that five Israeli military drones were involved in the fighting, and they claims the only reason Egypt’s military ended up expelling ISIS forces was because they sought “help from their Jewish masters.”

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.