CAIRO (AP) – The Egyptian president has ordered that the military will join police forces in guarding vital state facilities against terror attacks.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi issued the order in a decree Monday.
It follows a surge in attacks by Islamic militants against troops and police. Thirty Egyptian soldiers were killed on Friday by suspected militants in the troubled northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. It was deadliest attack against the army in decades.
The decree stipulated that army troops will join police in guarding state facilities for two years during which they will be treated as military installations. Perpetrators of any attacks against the facilities will be tried before military tribunals.
The decree will further raise the public profile of the military since it toppled Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last year.