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Friday, September 14, 2012

Militants attack peacekeeper headquarters in Sinai


Four members of the Multinational Force & Observers (MFO) in the Sinai Peninsula on Friday wounded after an angry mob attacked their headquarters in northern Sinai.

According to reports, the mob broke down the wall of the base and set vehicles and tools alight, and there was an exchange of fire. Israel's Channel Two reported that the militants were Salafi extremists.

The attack by Bedouins was at the Multinational Force & Observers (MFO)'s North Camp base in the north of peninsula.

In the last year, MFO bases in the Sinai have suffered from repeated attacks on their bases and forces. This has included stone throwing and the blocking of their envoys.

According to the MFO's website, the organization is "an independent international organization, headquartered in Rome, with peacekeeping responsibilities in the Sinai."

"The origins of the MFO lie in Annex I to the 1979 Treaty of Peace between Egypt and Israel, in which the parties undertook to request the United Nations to provide a force and observers to supervise the implementation of the treaty.

 When it did not prove possible to obtain Security Council approval for the stationing of a UN peacekeeping force in the Sinai, the parties negotiated a Protocol in 1981 establishing the MFO 'as an alternative' to the envisioned UN force," the website says.

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